recognition

The Three Stages of Love From my own experience, I have discovered that there are three stages of love. I first knew love in its ordinary form — safe, comfortable, but shallow. My marriage gave me security, but it was love tied to routine and duty, fragile under silence and unmet recognition. That was Stage 1. Then, unexpectedly, came Stage 2. A rare kind of love — born not from possession, but from recognition. A single gaze, a few words at Starbucks, and I felt seen in a way I had never known. Even in absence, that love became my energy, my awakening, my art. Now, I see the horizon of Stage 3. The highest love — recognition and freedom together. A love that says:“I see you, and I trust you to gr...

The Tree of Yoga He sensed I liked him about three months after we met. His sensitivity was strong — shaped by years of caring for his family, learning to notice the subtle: body language, energy shifts, unspoken feelings. One day in April, he expressed his feeling directly: “Your smile shines like the sun, always makes me feel happy when I get one.” I explained my kindness as cultural — “because you are a foreigner here, and so am I, I understand the feeling of isolation and want to be friendly.” His response was simple, but it pierced through: “It is a pity that you don’t like me....