Intimacy with our city and with our loved ones

Cities have a special charm in the middle of summer. Although less and less, as people space their vacations throughout the year more frequently lately.

For those of us who stay in our cities in summer we have the opportunity to live them with an intimacy that is much more difficult to experience at other times of the year. In some way, it is an intimacy similar to the one we have with our partners or with people who are very important to us.

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The relationship between intimacy with the city and with loved ones

I present below five aspects in which that intimacy with our city and with our special people are intertwined:

1. Wandering aimlessly

Nowadays, having time to dedicate to this wandering is a privilege. During the holidays we can walk without a predefined objective through the streets of our city. Discover buildings that we had not noticed, the color palette of a certain area of ​​the city, the vibrant atmosphere of a neighborhood that we do not usually go through, or the size of the trees that often we ignore.

Similarly, when we are with a loved one without haste and without an agenda, we rediscover it. All those months in which we have been together in such a hurry have not allowed us to delight in the person we have chosen to be with us.

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2. Leisure and cultural activities

The cities maintain a schedule of activities even in the hottest of summers. It is the news of the city. What is alive and happening right now.

People also have an actuality. With what is important to each one right at this moment in our lives. With the rush of everyday life we ​​do not update the version of the people with whom we share life.

The current is relevant to feel united in the present to our cities and those we love.

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3. Those late visits

There are always spaces, areas, of the places where we live that, even though they seem very interesting, we leave for another time. They require a tranquility that during the course does not usually accompany us. These spaces can be a certain monument, a visit to certain paintings, delve into a certain historical period of our territory, etc.

A similar process occurs with our special people. There are aspects of these people that we know that we only know superficially. Conversations that we feel that we have not finished, because they would imply being able to talk with more time and serenity. It is an intentional search for the other in this case. Summers offer what it takes to pick up postponed conversations. There is time for the exhibition, to meet, to miss each other – as they are usually sensitive issues – and to meet again.

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4. What separates us

There are things in our cities that we don't like. Even to feel this we need a certain state of mind. It can be the weather, the transport infrastructure, the cultural environment, etc. We say yes to a city and live it fully when we have assumed the parts of them that we dislike.

And it's the same with people. When we can be together knowing what separates us, the union becomes more meaningful and solid.

5. What we didn't find and still choose to stay

Our cities lack things that are important to each of us. We refer to the irreparable absences and to the fact that they are so relevant that the longing continues. Sometimes this is the reason that initiates the trips. Those landscapes, that light, that cultural atmosphere, which does not exist in my city and does exist in other places. I travel and return. Somehow I am nourished by what is important to me in that other place and I return to the city where I have decided to live.

In relationships with our loved ones, space for each one is important, to nourish oneself outside of the relationship with the activities and environments that are essential for each one. The couple, or the special relationship, becomes stronger because fuller and happier people come to it.

In conclusion

These are some areas in which intimacy with our cities and with our loved ones is interwoven.

Human beings need to live our intimacy – being able to be with our sensitivity to the surface knowing that the other person is going to take care of us – in the healthiest way possible. We need to feel that we have a special relationship with another person or with "an other", for example the place where we live.

Summer and the movement of people to other places gives us the opportunity to fall in love with our cities and our loved ones again.