Just as it is recognized that a newborn will not thrive without touch, it is also recognized that no relationship can thrive without it either.
Touch is the key to intimacy.
We have all seen it. We sit in a bar or a restaurant and our gaze is captured at the sight of a man reaching out to caress a woman, to run his fingers through her hair, we are affected by this vision. We cannot help but long to be touched in the same way. A touch can give one the feeling of being cherished, of being treasured. And isn't that what we all long for?
I watched an elderly couple recently while I was vacationing in Savannah. Teenagers and young adults with children were running all around us, pulsating with youth and excitement, their lust for life resounding against the brick wall as I sat outside having a drink under a canopy of trees. But my eyes and attention were drawn to this elderly couple. He held her hand as they crossed the road slowly. He was obviously much stronger than she and he was guiding her gently, and lovingly, across the crosswalk, talking to her, she was smiling up at him. I got a lump in my throat from watching. I watched how they touched each other so openly, as if it were a habit, that both were not even concious of the beauty they exuded in their devotion to one another.
They did not see me watching them, they did not seem to notice the rush of the crowd around them-- they were simply lost in that moment. Lost within each other. And you could tell that this was not unusual for them. Two people who had built a world around themselves. That they had made their love, and each other, the center of their universe. In their love and devotion they had isolated themselves and insulated themselves.
Touch is the key to intimacy.
I do wonder how we have gotten so far from that. How it suddenly became so difficult to just reach out and touch one another.
I have been studying Tantric Touch and Massage Therapy. I looked into it as an alternative to sex therapists. I don't think there is anything wrong with Sex Therapy, don't get me wrong. I just wonder that we (the collective we, not personal) would need to bring in a third person to show us how to make love to each other. It seemed to me that this would break intimacy down more than build it. I thought of all of the ways that we might build intimacy and finding Tantric and Massage therapy, I felt that this would be the best way to rebuild such intimacy into our lives and relationships. To help two people regain their sense of touch and security. To become comfortable with each other in a world where everyone is fighting for their 'space'.
These are a few of my thoughts on the subject.
I would welcome your thoughts on, not only touch, but intimacy in general.
Technorati Tags: Love, Intimacy, Relationships, Touch, Tantric Massage, Savannah, Beautiful
