Just a quick thought for now that I’ll expand on later…
When you first meet someone, you see them with your eyes, and you develop an image of them in your mind. I was wondering this morning why it seems the picture of someone changes in our mind after we’ve known them for a little while. I think it’s because we’ve started seeing them with the heart. More later…
Ok, I’m finally back (9 days later, eek) to expand on this a bit, and I’m warning you- I’m extremely tired so hopefully this will sound somewhat coherent. I started thinking about this topic because it kind of blows my mind how people shift and change in our mind’s eye the longer we know them. It’s easier to pay attention to this if it happens early in a new friendship/relationship with someone, and if you actually sit up and notice the small changes in the way you see that person. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me who notices stuff like that, but nonetheless, I thought it was worth mentioning.
It’s kind of like if you’ve ever imagined what someone’s house looks like on the inside, and then you go there and get an actual physical look at what it’s like – you take a mental picture of it, and that’s what you think of next time you’re imagining them there. But for a short while, you can still remember what you imagined it to be like. That’s exactly how it is with new people in our lives. I can still remember my initial impressions of one person in particular – I remember the first time I saw him, and what he looked like to me, as a stranger. And it’s intriguing to think about how differently I see him now that I know him. My heart and mind have made all these little connections and now he “looks” like a completely different person to me. It’s the strangest thing – it’s not like it’s been all that long either, just a couple of months. But the change is so dramatic in my mind that they could be two different people.
I believe this happens when we start seeing someone with our hearts instead of our eyes- we look at that person and our minds send instant signals to our hearts- to our emotions – it’s the very definition of “sensory perception.” Once someone begins to seem “familiar,” we are at that point perceiving them with all of our senses, creating this synergistic image that encompasses everything we know and feel about them. It’s a beautiful thing to see someone with the heart instead of the eyes- it gives us a true look at who that person is, and allows our souls to speak to each other.
