Something like a dream- Preferences Identified

I just realized, inspired by something like a dream, that there are junctures in consciousness/awareness where differentiation along specific lines goes from unnoticed to recognized. At these junctures it is natural for a "favorite aspect/reflection" to emerge in the eye of the beholder, where no preference along these lines was reasonably possible prior for either observer or observed. I imagine this can be seen in babies and children, with frequency, as they discover in field after field where their preferences lie (such as foods, activities, and the like). It feels like this is also how physical preferences are developed for a partner and, once seen, how one's soulmate stands out in a crowd already filled with representations of these physical preferences. It seems like it may be natural for the one discovering such a preference to feel that they have lost a degree of connection with the one/aspect they knew previously that was undistinguished, but I do not see this as the case. Rather it feels to me like humans were encoded to do this precise thing, establishing individual preferences in a field that is uniformly "good," such that "very good" can be identified/revealed within this otherwise undifferentiated field.