Once Upon a Time
初心 [Sold]

“Harmony is found when we return to our truest, deepest selves.
一只空瓶，回望初心。”

oil on canvas
31x31cm

I stood there – proud, glistening, gleaming. Everyone gathered close, their eyes fixed on me, as though I were a relic of magic, or a star they had waited their whole lives to see.

Their faces told the story – wide-eyed wonder, quiet longing, disbelief tinged with reluctant hope. 

Could a bottle really awaken your forgotten dreams?

They said if you whispered your first dreams – the one you had before life grew heavy with responsibility and doubt – I would stir it awake. The long-lost feeling of joy, of passion, of wonder. 

And in that moment, you’d remember. The happiness that once made your eyes light up. The ache of yearning that you’d feel when you were parted from it. The fire that set your heart racing.

Because harmony isn’t just peace. It is also reconnecting with yourself – and to carry that truth with you, quietly but steadfastly, through the course of life.

So tell me –

What would you whisper to the bottle? 

Harmony begins within us – when we reconnect with who we truly are. We spend years chasing and striving, yet the truest parts of ourselves never disappear. When we remember who we are, the fragments of longing gather, and we become whole once more.