Key 1 – Understanding intimacy

We desire connection.  Intimacy is defined as closeness—the kind of closeness that allows and encourages vulnerability.  One of my favorite family pictures is a shot taken from the back that depicts my Dad and his two brothers quietly gazing out onto the lake where our family cabin is located.  There was not a lot of conversation at the moment—but there is a palpable closeness, an intimacy, of brothers sharing parents, sharing history, sharing a lake cabin, sharing a quiet moment together, all of which was captured in the picture.  Words are not always necessary for intimacy.   

Friendship is the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words but pouring all right out just as they are chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful friendly hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of comfort, blow the rest away.   

—George Eliot

Thought to ponder — How can I move towards someone?  What would closeness look like in a current relationship?