One day, my son showed me a small black stapler. From the outside – completely ordinary, just another object you wouldn’t think twice about.

But when he turned it over and gently opened the bottom part, a small compartment was revealed, holding extra staples – as if it had a secret belly.

I stood there and realized that this stapler had been sitting on my desk for months, and only now I was discovering there was more to it than I thought.

When I asked him how he discovered it, he answered simply:
"I tried. Whenever I try – I discover new things."

I couldn’t get that sentence out of my head.

In that moment, I understood that this isn’t really a story about a stapler.
It’s a story about me, and about all of us – about all those places where we live alongside our lives, but don’t really open, don’t really check, don’t really try.

As I looked at that small stapler, I realized how similar we are to it.

We see ourselves as "ordinary":
just another mother, another parent, another caregiver, another partner.
We have routines, roles, responsibilities – and so many things we believe we already know about ourselves.

But there are whole parts within us that have never been given the chance to come out:

• Talents we don’t touch because “it’s not the right time.”
• Dreams we’ve pushed aside because “it’s not realistic.”
• Soft or creative parts of us we’ve never even tried to give space to.

We wait until we have more time, more confidence, less fear – and in the meantime, we stay with the same habits, the same roles, the same thoughts.

The little stapler reminded me:
only when we gently open, and are willing to look inside, do we discover the true “inside” of who we are.

My son didn’t know there was a hidden compartment.
He simply allowed himself to play, to explore, to try.
And from that small moment of play – a big life lesson was born.

✨ The treasure is hidden in the trying. ✨

A reflection question for the coming week:
What is one small thing I’m willing to try this week?

You can write for yourself:

• What is one small thing I’m willing to try this week?
• What scares me most about it?
• What good might happen if I give it a chance?

To a life of curiosity,
Hannah Pilnick ❤️

This weekly message is inspired by the story "What’s Hidden Inside the Stapler's Belly?" from my new book "Souvenirs – Short stories with life lessons".

To a life of curiosity
❤️ Hannah