meeting new people, need advice

I've found myself in a unique situation where I could use some advice. In recent years I've found myself rethinking my life and rehashing my past; whats really important became abundantly clear to me, a wife and kids. Everything from today on will be about them with no exceptions. The problem is that the past years of my life have involved a number of circumstances that have left me with literally nothing and needing a complete restart, people places and things are all completely new. With my new lease on life I've decided to make several fundamental changes to how I view the world all of which I believe would make a good husband and father. The way I view women in general has been the biggest change, where I used to go around starring at asses I find myself looking for smiles. The most beautifull thing I can find in my days is a pregnant woman or a mom with her daughter or for that matter a father with his son. While I completely rebuild my life I am doing my best to go about it as a committed husband and an honest father, still I find it incredibly difficult because other then the commitment this is all I have.

Now for the conundrum, My life has left me with a lot of problems, human interaction is a challenging task, just the thought of walking past someone causes me a good deal of stress. What I need to do is get back into the world and become social again, all of my friends have left (good riddance) and the people who are still in my life are more important then ever though I can't put myself around them more then once every week or two, I don't want them to see my like this as they will be a part of my life for the rest of my days. So I could use some advice on how to go about doing this, assuming that I already have a commitment only she isn't here today, how do I go into the world without being disloyal? I've gone out a few times to make eye contact with random women and flirt a little but this has left me feeling dishonest. I've haven't made a new friend that wasn't introduced to me since about 6th or 7th grade so my social skills are almost nill. The only people I've been able to find seeking interaction with new people are women looking to date. How do I meet someone with the desire to be nothing more then friends?