Intimacy

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Intimacy is close familiarity, relationship or friendship. At the heart of intimacy is empathy, understanding, and compassion; which are feelings associated with attachment.

We know that infants “fail to thrive” unless they experience physical and emotional closeness
with another human being, and that need for connection never goes away.

“Intimacy is the only gateway into the temple of human or divine love. I believe vulnerable intimacy is the entrance into, and the linchpin between, all human and divine love. People who risk intimacy are invariably happier and much more real people. In intimate moments, you have been touched by something you cannot yet endure or carry, but you still love the touch and the invitation to carry.”

“An infinite God seeks and desires intimacy with the human soul. Once you experience such intimacy, only the intimate language of lovers describes what is going on for you; mystery, tenderness, singularity, specialness, changing the rules for ‘me’, nakedness, risk, ecstasy, incessant longing, and of course, also, suffering. This is the mystical vocabulary of the saints.”

Richard Rohr “Immortal Diamond”

Intimate sexual experience is where two partners both express love and vulnerability.

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