Once upon a time while traveling through a foreign country, ..

Once upon a time while traveling through a foreign country, I felt a very strong attraction to someone that really didn't make any sense to me since we could barely communicate at all. It started with a curiosity, an attempt at friendship, then, with each interaction, a subtle and strange warmth began to emerge in our eye contact and in the tones of our voices as we stumbled along with the help of Google Translate. 👀🔥 I noticed that I could pick out his laughter wherever he was, and that when he was nearby I couldn't focus on much else. 🧲 That sweet warmth flared up into a fiery passion and I was drawn in. I felt like I had *fallen in love* but in a new way that I had never felt before. It scared me, but I was grateful to feel my heart burn with joy for a little while, and although it quickly burned me, I feel a little more healed from the experience. 🔥 The fresh new pain covered the tiresome flavor of the old pains, and was much easier to get over since the relationship was never meant to be and he really wasn't very nice to me. My attraction to him was magnetic, animalistic and probably something to do with pheromones. 💥🧬 But all due respect to our basic biology! Those pheromones are *delicious* and animalistic is alright by me. 🦊🔥 Over the course of my life, I have felt the stirrings of love in my heart for several people, and they are all different flavors. Each person who touches us on an emotional level activates a facet of ourselves that only they bring out in us. This is why, when we fall in love, we find ourselves saying, “I've never felt this way before.” It's true! ✨🙃 It's good to remember, however, that that is the anatomy of the meaningful relationship and the polyamorous term for this stage is called “new relationship energy” or NRE and if we switched to describing it that way instead of the confusing, overused and societally weighted term “in love” we might be able to experience all of our relationships with more awareness – to appreciate experiencing a new connection that brings out something new in ourselves that we love – but also remember to not get too obsessive, unrealistic in our expectations, or co-dependent. 💣⛓