Fireplace Projection

I've got a fire place
Projected onto the wall...
Ambience...
Relaxation...
Tongues of flame
Rising up the walls
In an ever repeating loop...
The subtle cracks and pops...
The sound of the breath of the flames themselves...
Effectively relaxing...
The projector's bulb is enough to add heat to the room,
Completing the illusion...
Most things are illusions...
There are precious few
Experiences in this world
That are actually real...
Expectation versus perception...
Logic versus emotion...
Our own point of view
Can make fictions
Out of objective reality...
Humans do this all the time...
If I'm hungry,
Everyone must be hungry...
If I'm upset,
Everyone must be upset...
If I'm upset with myself,
Everyone must be upset with me...
This is the mindset
That infants and toddlers have...
They are still learning
The concept of "other"...
Still learning
The concept of "self"...
Of separation from the source...
The fear of abandonment
That makes us cling 
Tighter and tighter
Until 
Circulation is cut off...
Oxygen does not travel
To cells that are
Starving for it...
Gangrene sets in...
Parts of us die...
Parts of what we have clung to
Die...
We summon our fears...
Calling out to them
In the wild
Like we're calling out
To a lost pet...
The family dog...
We hang flyers
"Reward if found"
On every telephone pole
In town...
Self-fulfilling prophecy...
We gorge ourselves on our fear...
As if it were comfort food,
And we weren't even really hungry,
But we just can't seem to stop...
Just filling a void 
With whatever was left in the cupboards...
Some of us,
Sadly,
Do this to ourselves...
I have had
Expectations 
That could not come to pass, 
As well...
Things that did not become reflected
By reality...
Expectations rarely do...
Some say,
"Love is the answer."
And
It just may be...
Love and forgiveness,
Which is not to say reconciliation -
Feelings don't need
To be in the presence of their object
To exist...
Or to stubbornly persist...
It's supposed to hurt...
It's supposed to hurt like Hell...
The pain reminds you that the experience is supposed to mean something...
It's supposed to be significant...
A lesson...
Negative reinforcement...
A virtual shock-collar 
For the limbic system...
Flames
Rising up 
The walls...
Time slowing down...
Minutes 
Taking hours...
The tape loop keeps playing
Until you decide
To make it stop.