be intimate with your life

a prose poem exploring the depths of intimacy

be intimate with your life

Be intimate with your life.

Intimacy is exploration. Each new footstep, plant discovered, creature greeted is intimacy with the land surrounding you. Find the places, the nooks and caves and secret hiding spots that are perfect to read in, laugh in, daydream in, cry in. The places that you would never meet if you didn’t go out and explore.

Intimacy is tasting the sweetness of the orange as it slides down your throat, admiring the sparkles the juice makes in each crisp apple slice, feeling the subtle bumps of strawberry seeds as they glide over your tongue. These plants have grown from sunshine, water, earth and the pollen carried through the wind. They nourish you. Each piece like a drop of nectar seeping into your cells, becoming you.

Intimacy is tracing your fingertips over a lover’s lips. Feeling where they are hard and where they are soft and where they are both at the same time. It’s the sweetness of tongues touching and cradling the pain that lives in their heart in your hand. It’s feeling the energetic pulses travelling through every nerve pathway as they squeeze your hand, your leg. Watching as their pupils and irises shift in response to light, love and enchantment. Holding them close, placing your hand against theirs and marvelling at how two souls are colliding.

Intimacy is listening to birdsong, the wind tickling verdant green leaves, the hustle of traffic. The sounds of so many lives and elements bumping into each other, so many stories unfolding. There is a world out there, all connected and rippling out like water after the raindrop enters the river. You are as much a part of nature as any butterfly or mountain. Moving with the seasons, always becoming.

Intimacy is sitting in front of an italian restaurant with a friend. The smell of tomatoes and garlic in the air as you sip peppermint tea talking about what’s hurting and what’s healing. Connecting over shared joys and unfurling passions. Feeling awe, like your two hearts are suddenly beating in one rhythm, one song. Notes of life that seemed to blend into perfect harmony. Shy admissions of cherishing this new bond.

Intimacy is becoming one with a wave as it carries you to shore. The white foam bubbling with the scent of salt. Rainbows forming as the sea spray dances with the sunshine. Light, water and shadow making swirling patterns on your skin like a temporary tattoo. When you feel like you’re flying, no longer human, not quite the ocean but something magically in between.

Intimacy is feeling the breeze touching your skin so tenderly. Finally allowing your body to rest, to sleep under the summer afternoon sun. Knowing yourself so deeply and romancing yourself in exactly the way that you need. Adorning your hair with flowers and hanging shells from your ears. Resisting the urge to rush like everyone else, because the earth is telling you to linger here just a little bit longer.

Intimacy is presence to sensuality. You’re here now. Be intimate with your life.

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