Can You Spot It?

At first glance, this picture looks like nothing more than soil, leaves, and twigs.

But look again.

There’s a toad nestled right there, camouflaged, blending so well with its surroundings that we could easily miss it. Can you spot it now?

Through time, the toad has taken on the colors and patterns of its environment to survive.

And we are not different from the toad. Our psyche works in the same way: we all carry narratives and behaviors that were once necessary for us to cope with the environments we grew up in. Like the toad, they blend into the background, into our soil of being, so much that we stop noticing them. We don’t notice the ways we hide, defend ourselves, or perform. Those patterns feel invisible, until we pause, really look, and begin to spot them:

• The way we shrink back when conflict arises, because it once kept us safe.

• The drive to overachieve, because recognition was scarce.

• The habit of always saying “yes,” because we learned that pleasing others kept the peace.

What once served us has become part of our camouflage and affect others, the way we live and relate.

What’s hiding there? Some of these patterns still help us, but others may no longer fit the environment we live in today.

Spotting them takes patience. It takes stillness. It takes the courage to look closely at the stories we tell ourselves and the behaviors we carry. And just like in this photo, once you see the toad, you can’t unsee it. Awareness changes everything.

Because awareness is the first step toward rewriting our stories.