Most recently I gave an interview on blog talk radio with Tabitha Vinson of Praise and Worship ICU (PWICU).
During our discussion of my recent novel, The House, Tabitha asked me to explain intimacy, an aspect that, for her, played heavily in The House.
Immediately I thought of what Marianne Williamson writes of Intimacy in her book, Illuminata. (pp. 151-153)
….
The purpose of intimate partnership is to midwife the perfection in each other.
The point of love is to reveal to us the light inside. …
…Our intimate love is our partner on a holy adventure.
With this person we are given a chance to move into the center of things. In the spiritual space of intimate connection we are given the space to heal and be healed.
In order to heal we must reveal our wounds. And so it is that with the person with whom we share the deepest love is often the person we share the deepest pain.
When we hold a person deeply in our hearts, we hold their darkness as well as their light.
…The ability to accept our partner’s darkness and the willingness to reveal our own make us vulnerable to wounding.
But these are sacred wounds: they are a prelude to healing.
Intimacy doesn’t mean that both people are perfect. It doesn’t even men that one is perfect. It means that two people realize that all of us are wounded and we are all here to be healed.
The key to empowerment in any area is understanding its purpose, and the purpose of intimacy is healing. …”
Like Marianne Williamson, I too define human intimacy as what she writes.
What is yours?