When you are born a lotus flower, be a beautiful lotus flower. Don’t try to be a magnolia flower.

To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself. When you are born a lotus flower, be a beautiful lotus flower. Don’t try to be a magnolia flower. If you crave acceptance and recognition and try to change yourself to fit what other people want you to be, you will suffer all your life. True happiness and true power lie in understanding yourself, accepting yourself, having confidence in yourself.”

― Thích Nhất Hạnh, The Art of Power

 “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” Jung

We feel lost and inauthentic when we loose connection our own uniqueness. Just as the lotus flower needs the mud, we need our life situations to transform and grow. “Sooner or later something seems to call us onto a particular path… this is what I must do, this is what I’ve got to have. This is who I am.”