• It is a reflective and personal look at how our fear pushes others away;
• our relentless pursuit of intimacy via romance and ecstasy;
• 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 doesn't tell you what to do. Terry gives you permission to recognize that the journey begins with you.

This is a very good book for those who fear close relationships. The author emphasizes that to be human is to want and need to feel connected to others. Yet, often our ambivalence toward ourselves, those in our lives, and life itself makes it difficult to reach out to others to love and to be loved.
—Review posted online
Through reading this book, I came to understand that relationships involve enormous risk and feelings of vulnerability. The results of taking risks can be both painful and pleasurable. However, both are a necessary part of life. Without pain, we would not enjoy pleasure. The author points out that we sometimes live life as though we’re fending it off or simply getting through it. He suggests instead that we think of life as an invitation, including an invitation to be loved. There are not necessarily rational reasons others may love us. We simply are loved.  The author is a Christian but the book does not come across as overly religious...
—Review posted online
Intimate relationships are “places of vulnerability” where “we touch the real self, or embrace real emotions, or see need as a genuine imperative or break down the cycle of protective self-sufficiency.” This book discusses that journey… not how to “meet the right one.” You won’t find answers here. “The road toward intimacy is essentially a journey of personal transparency.” This book stimulates you to ask questions. Who do I continually take with me into relationships? How does my true self impact my relationships? Who or what owns me? Who or what forms the script on the tapes in my mind? Who or what provides the belief system about my identity? Am I somebody yet? Am I there yet?   The second half of this book gives you some tools for the journey… permission to invest (to be human), solitude (an interior experience), pain (tough enough to be soft) and finally friendship, community and liturgy.
—Review posted online