The Butterfly

"When things don't happen right away, just remember: it takes 6 months to build a Rolls Royce and 13 hours to build a Toyota."
Anonymous

For a long time I've wanted to start a business, publish my books, create my art and establish a platform where people can connect, share and be inspired, empowered and enlightened by what I love to do best, which is to create.

It may appear like I did this over night, but this is no overnight success story. This idea started a few years ago, probably in January 2010, when I visited Bondi Beach and had an epiphany. For years I didn't understand the hype associated with the place. That is, until I went there myself and stood at the top of the hill, overlooking the view. That's when I understood why people went there, drove hours to get there, spent a day and would leave nourished and satisfied. At that time I had one of those awesome brick Nokia's that just couldn't ever break, but unfortunately it only had a 1000 character limit for notes, which isn't much if you are a writer. I also happened to be reading the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini at the time, but the view, the epiphany, the sun and the people kept me restless and inspired. So I started writing and when I came home, I continued and realised that this short essay was about to be the foreword for my poetry book.

Since 2010, I have wanted to publish my poetry book but, for some reason, it never felt like the right time. So I spent the following five years learning, thinking, brainstorming what I want my brand to be, how I want to do what I want to do and what will be the name of this business. Depending who you ask, five years can seem like a short time or a long time. For me, it was a full time. There was love, there was loss, there was heartbreak, there was growth, learning, work, travel and lots of unlearning. But every person, every moment, everything that happened, and didn't happen, lead me to Friday the 26th of December 2014.

It was boxing day, slightly overcast, and my intuition kept yelling at me to go to Clovelly beach, so I did. While driving there, I mixed up my lanes in Randwick and as I was merging back into the lane I had to be in, my phone rang. Now, imagine this scene: I'm trying to merge into the right lane and looking over my shoulder to see if the car is letting me in. I've also hit the brakes because a bus in front of me had stopped to collect passengers and to top it all off, I'm trying to ignore the annoying ringtone from my phone. All in all, it's total madness. Thankfully, it was over within a few minutes and I was quickly on my way again. When I stopped, I returned the call. It was my brother and, because my world is small, he said that he just drove past me. At that time he lived in Coogee and so we decided to catch up at the beach. It was too cold to swim, but we talked about life and somehow started talking about my business and brand. After much to and fro, I had another epiphany, probably the best one I could have ever had. Ladies and gentlemen: after five years of brainstorming and design, I finally discovered my brand name!

Call it coincidence, call it fate, call it luck, the choice is yours, but it cannot be denied that if anything happened a second later or in another order, I wouldn't be sitting here writing this blog.

And this is the story, well part of the story, of how The Butterfly came to be.

So, why The Butterfly?

Well, as a friend of mine would say, Why not? but being an artist and writer, I cannot escape the need and innate desire for symbolism in everything I do. As you may know, in order for a caterpillar to become a butterfly it has to go through a huge metamorphoses, one that is not always guaranteed and one that happens in the darkness and isolation of a cocoon. I went through a huge metamorphoses, especially these past 3 years and felt that the butterfly best represents this change and how it empowered me to become the person I am today. 

For everyone who knows me, it's a surprise that The Butterfly is blue, but even this has its reasons. Blue is the colour of peace, introversion, reflection, calm and depth and this is what The Butterfly symbolises.

If you think about it, when we were born, in some way, we resembled caterpillars. And as we grew, we collected and learnt the tools and talents with which we could transform our lives and become butterflies. So if we find the strength, patience, courage and faith to endure the darkness and metamorphoses that we undergo within the cocoon, we can all become the butterflies we are destined to be.

Are you ready?

The Butterfly is here to help.