The People We <3

Alot of the things going on in our city lately have me thinking... and it's a damn shame that it takes effed up shit going down to make us appreciate...

Life continues to move forward at a rate that becomes more and more alarming every year that I age. I find as I become older I become more self absorbed and of course just generally concerned with my own well being. Well as good of a thing that this is I tend to lose balance with other things in my life. Other things and people...

Detroit is a small city and I've lived here for 13 years now. Moved here by way of VA by way of NY when I was 15 years old. So as far as I'm concerned this is home.

I've made alot of friends and alot of frienemies also over those years. My close friends are few and most of them have been in my life close to 10 years if not longer. Most of these relationships just "happen" because I click with certain people. I have about threventeen thousand acquaintances, people that I meet through my work as a tattoo artist, makeup artist or just in and around Detroit's music scene...
My question to you is... what separates a friend from an acqaintance? Is it that you allow the friend to get to know you? Do our friends become our friends by default? Are they people we were around so much that we let the mask down, let the defenses and the guard down? That we become comfortable enough around them to truly be ourselves and say what we think and what we feel without fear of betrayal or disloyalty?
There are a TON of people that I admire and respect and appreciate, that I wish I had the time or the energy or the capacity to be closer with. We get grown and our jobs/mate/children take precedence. People are roses and we get too busy in life to stop and smell them now and again. Friend, acquaintance or frienemy, each person is an individual entity, and wether the enegy they give off is positive or negative, it is still energy. They still are a small piece of the big complicated system. It is conditioning that makes me to isolate, not trust, or to be reclusive. This is only because I've been betrayed or hurt so many times before. My NATURAL instinct is to love and give and be open. It is my concious CHOICE to defy my defenses, to defy what life has taught me...
Life is short. This gets shown and proven to us in the ugliest ways. I will not let my past dictate for me who I am today. I don't need to be bitter because I've been wronged. I think this is maybe the lesson to life. Is that every day we wake up with the CHOICE of who we are, who we love, who we allow into the sacred space in our lives...

Now I've just gotten to rambling. Welcome to the inside of my head. Instead of being angry today about things I can do nothing about, I'm going to appreciate the things that I have. I'm going to love those who are close to me, and hopefully allow new people in my life to know me better. This is me growing, I am radiant today.