Intimate Masks

I’m listening to Pilgrimage To The Southern Stars, the original recordings that would evenutally become Live‘s The Distance To Here, one of my favourite albums ever made. Live is one of the most consistantly awe-inspiring bands I’ve ever experienced, and there’s a song on this album, “Dance With You,” that never fails to break open my heart and move me in a torrent. Listening to it now, I’m awash with memories of intimacy.

Intimacy is enhanced by solitude. There’s a wide range of benefit to be found in time alone, but for me it’s most valuable in meditative and creative moments. While I wish to imbue each moment and everything I do with conscious plays of stillness and creation, it’s easier to access that when I’m alone. When I return to intimate moments with those I love after solitude I am better able to be present and to lovingly co-create our moments.

Part of skillful intimacy, as well as anything we do, is being playful with our identities. The more we become aware of and creative with our personalities, the more free of them we become. Liberated from narrow identities, we are free to use them in beneficial ways. Like the best actors, we are able to step fully into a role but not be bound by it.

We’re always wearing masks. We can be slaves to them or use them with great joy. Underneath it all is our Self unbounded, our original face. As William at IOC wrote today, “Do you know your true face? Can you feel it?“