We can't live completely isolated from others. We can try. It just doesn't work. But, intimacy has always been a risky business. Hard to figure out, harder to achieve. This book reassures the reader that a lifestyle of intimacy is a risk worth taking. It is a reflective and personal look at how our fear pushes others away; our relentless pursuit of intimacy via romance and ecstacy; our inability to find acceptance where we are; and our need to see intimacy as a celebration of life as it is and not as it should be.

There are a lot of people and books that will tell you what to do - five easy steps and all that - and even more to make you feel downright horrible for what you didn't do. This book and audiotape series (Intimacy: Building Healthy Relationships) doesn't tell you what to do. It gives you permission to recognize that the journey begins with you.

This book takes an attentive and humourous approach to these and other issues: Why are we in such a muddle about "relationships"? And why is there such a crazy demand in this culture to "have somebody" to be okay? Why is intimacy so hard? What are the misconceptions about intimacy? Do I have to give up "me" to be loved? What signals do I send to attract the people around me? And what do I "take" with me into my relationships?