Intimacy
Though we may think we know each other well, when we neglect feelings
in a relationship, we neglect the deepest and most intimate part of ourselves
... sharing feelings leads us to great closeness because feelings are very
personal, the most intimate part of us. The sharing of a deep feeling is
the greatest gift a human being can give to another.
--Fr. Chuck Gallaghe
Henceforth there will be such a oneness between us---
that when one weeps the other will taste salt.
--author unknown
When love is accompanied wit deep intimacy, it raises us to the highest
level of human experience. In this exalted space, we can surrender our
egos, become vulnerable and know levels of joy and well-being unique among
life experiences. We attain a glimpse of the rapture that can be ours.
Boundaries are blurred, there are no limitations and we rejoice in union.
We become one and, at the same time, both.
--Leo Buscaglia (Born For Love)
Oh, the miraculous energy that flows between two people who care enough
to get beyond surfaces and games, who are willing to take the risks of
being totally open, of listening, of responding with the whole heart. How
much we can do for each other.
--Alex Noble
One of the characteristics of love relationships that flower is a relatively
high degree of mutual self-disclosure-- a willingness to let our partner
enter into the interior of our private world and a genuine interest in
the private world of that partner. Couples in love tend to show more of
themselves to each other than to any other person.
--Nathaniel Branden
Love simply cannot spring up without that self-surrender to each other.
If either withholds the self, love cannot exist.
--Dr. E. Stanley Jones
What does open us is sharing our vulnerabilities. Sometimes we see a
couple who has done this difficult work over a lifetime. In the process,
they have grown old together. We can sense the enormous comfort, the shared
quality of ease between these people. It is beautiful, and very rare. Without
this quality of openness and vulnerability, partners don't really know
each other; they are one image living with another image.
--Charlotte Joko Beck
