This phrase has stayed with me. And here’s why.
We most often say: "I like you," "I love you," "You're beautiful." It's like slapping a label on a person. A beautiful, important one, but... a static one. It's an assessment, a conclusion, a tag.
Formally, "to love" is also a verb. But in practice, it rarely describes an action. More often, it's a statement of status, a label for a relationship, rather than an act of focused attention here and now. "To love" becomes something abstract, stretched over time, and intangible.
That is precisely why "I see you" is not a result. It is an action. Concrete, immediate, and direct. A process that happens here and now.
"I see you" means I am not sleepwalking past you. I have stepped out of the stream of my own thoughts and have seen the living person in front of me. With all their cracks, light, and shadow.
How often do we truly see those close to us? Not the image we've created, but the one who is here, right now? Perhaps we should sometimes replace (or preface) the habitual "I love you" with this incredibly profound "I see you"?
Have you ever been truly seen? And have you ever truly seen someone?
Because to be seen is, perhaps, one of the fundamental human needs. Try today not to say (or not only to say) "I love you," but to truly see the person beside you. It might change everything.
It seems that within these three words, "I see you," lies an entire practice of mindfulness in relationships.
