This is a quote from a lengthy and philosophical, probably not for very little children, fairytale I find myself writing at the moment about the spirit of beauty titled ‘The Lotus’. Heavily inspired by my visit to Vietnam; which I’ll always cherish as one of the places whose beauty truly touched my soul…

The bit of dialogue I’ve extracted from the story, in which the Spirit of Ugliness shares some words of wisdom with the Spirit of Beauty, has sort of stuck in my head after I wrote it. Sounds important in these times. So I felt like sharing it. Hope you all enjoy and happy holidays 😌🙏

“Remember little girl, from the mud a lotus blossoms, and to mud a lotus withers. A lotus makes the mud beautiful so it is noticed. And in turn the mud makes the lotus ugly so it can become beautiful time and again. In the process love is forever reborn. Love is the most important thing. Because everything wants to be loved. The ugly and the beautiful.”

- Hektor Thillet