Soft born

We are all born soft. Light, warm, open. Like this little yellow ball – cheerful, pure, and full of trust. But life stings. It disappoints, confuses, hurts. And so we build up layers. Red thorns, formed out of self-protection. An icy gaze, so no one sees how vulnerable it still is inside.

This work is a reflection on the hard exterior many of us develop. Not because that's who we are, but because we think we have to be. Because being soft in a hard world feels like a risk.

Yet the little yellow ball reminds us: beneath all those layers, we are still who we were – light and lively. Perhaps we should dare to show that again from time to time.