I was born soft.

Soft and squishy and vulnerable—just like everyone else in the world.

We’re all deeply feeling beings; many of us just choose not to show it. For a lot of my life, I was that person—afraid to be open, afraid to seem weak, afraid to be me. I was taught to believe that my softness was a weakness, that my sensitivity made me small.

Over time, I hardened…as we do. I thought the shell I formed around my heart would protect me from the messy world, but all it really provided me was a false sense of safety and comfort that painfully prevented my growth.

It’s an illusion to believe that hardening our hearts and hiding our softness from the world is productive. When we fear being vulnerable and we hide who we are, we only create more division. Because deep down, we’re all soft. We’re all squishy. We’re all vulnerable. And we all desire to be seen.

But how can we be seen if we aren’t allowing ourselves to be seen?

It’s hard to be soft when life itself is hard. But our ability to stay soft in the hardness is what makes us genuinely strong. Ironic, I know. It’s scary to allow the pain to wash through us because when we allow the pain to be felt, that’s when we break—that’s when the shell around our hearts begin to crack.

Let it crack. Let it break open and fall onto the ground into a million little pieces because when you do, that’s when you become soft. And, my love, when have you ever seen something so soft so easy to break?

We’re all born soft—it’s our natural way of being. But staying soft in a hard world has now become a superpower. Our softness makes us magnetic. Our softness makes us human. Our softness makes us seen.

And in the times you forget to believe that being soft is a superpower, return to these 13 words:

“Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.” ~ Lao Tzu

My love, you are water. You were never meant to be hard. You were never meant to cage your heart. Allow your waves to crash.

Your superpower is being soft.

Your superpower is being you.