opening the heart

I can already feel some of my negative attachments fading a bit.

I think I have a tendency to objectify strangers, to not see them as truly human in the way that I view my dearest friends. I am working on this.

It's funny that I have spent much of my adolescent and adult life looking for Love when in fact for most of the time I've been surrounded by it, from family, from friends. Why would romantic love seem like a higher class of love to me than friendly (for lack of a better word) love? Maybe because I don't have a very realistic view of what romantic love is--I have a romantic view of it, drawn from movies, books, songs, and for some reason I think that view has some correspondence to reality. But it's only the reality of fantasy. The reality that people hold illusions. My view of romantic love is based on an actual experience, but it's an experience that doesn't (and can't) last very long (those first few months of being head over heels). It'd probably do me some good to give more energy into the loving relationships I already have, even if they're not romantic, because they're going to sustain. Opening my eyes, opening my heart, to what's already around me.

I have a meeting...