A Reminder That We All Start As Strangers
Perception is reality and how you choose to see the world is how you CHOOSE to see the world.
By 
Ida Hallidri
We all start out as strangers. Every person that is now near and dear to your heart was once just a stranger. What’s really strange, though, is that we call people we haven’t had a chance to really meet yet such a word. It’s kind of not fair.
You don’t talk to strangers. You stay away and be weary around strangers. These are ideas that have been ingrained in us as long as our memory can back us up. I mean, obviously it’s justified because there are STRANGE PEOPLE out there who could take advantage of our open and vulnerable nature. I don’t, however, think that all the people we haven’t had a chance to get to know are strange people.
These ideas that were set out since we were old enough to kind of understand words have limited us. Have limited me. They teach us to be judgmental, to be closed and unloving, to create separateness between us and the unknown. It is limiting to have predisposed thoughts and ideas of other people. It’s like looking at someone through a lens that colours them differently and making conclusions about what they are, letting your fictional stories determine your reality. Perception is reality and how you choose to see the world is how you CHOOSE to see the world.
Consider being a little more o p e n. Consider dropping your beliefs on the unknown… the “strange.” I am not condoning dropping all common sense and allowing people that might take advantage of you into your life. Practice your intuition and make conclusions about how you really feel in a situation, not what your fearful mind is saying you should feel. Practice being open to new experiences and new people, you might be surprised how familiar they might feel.
Take inventory of the beliefs you currently hold about the world around you. You’d be surprised how many of those are truly yours, and how many have been inherited by other people’s experiences and conclusions about the world. Don’t sign up for anything that doesn’t feel good to you. Put a little thought in your thoughts and drop anything that may be limiting your experience.
The love of your life was once that random person at the club, and your best friend may have been just a person riding the subway.
Connections are waiting to happen if you welcome them, are open to them, and just give them a chance.
Say hi to the person standing in line before you… or not, I don’t know. They might be weird. 
