I met a Man once who told me that the flight pattern of a butterfly is the only flight pattern that is completely unpredictable. It flutters and swerves at random, flying solely on where it feels it should go at that particular moment. It has no predestined route and it has no obligations to anyone or anything. It just floats on, until it sees a flower that it chooses to rest on. Then, once the butterfly has had enough, it flutters off again, with complete ease and freedom. And so it should, after flourishing from the confines of a cocoon in solitude for so long.

There was a girl who dreamed of being such a butterfly. She inched her way through life as a caterpillar – hoping, wishing that she would also be able to fly one day. She watched in awe as other butterflies took to the skies in their bright and bold mosaic of colours. She longed for the bravery of that flight. But she also found solace in the comfort of her tree branch. She knew where she could get food, safety & sunlight. She knew every single move she was about to take – One tiny footstep at a time.

She loved her life. Looking back now, she actually had a pretty cool life. She worked hard for it too. But there was that constant feeling that she had; that there’s got to be something more. There was something missing, she just couldn’t place it. It was foreign to her, this concept of finding what’s missing. How could she find something if it wasn’t really there? How could she become something that she didn’t know what it really was? She had all these questions, worries, doubts. She had fear.

The thing about growth though, is that you need to be so completely ready to become what you want to be, that you can’t dwell on what you’re leaving behind. You need to have this image in your brain, you need to affirm to yourself every single day that this is what you want & it is what’s happening right this moment.  You also need to realize that growth and freedom is no pretty process.  It’s scary and it tests you in ways that you never thought possible. It can be dark, it can be overwhelming, but it will always, always work out the way that it’s supposed to. You see, once you officially decide that you want change, the law of attraction makes situations happen that force you to face your fears, face yourself & live up to this dream that you’re busy creating.

It took me years of evading situations and procrastinating on what I knew I needed for my life for me to realize that everything I ever wanted was always just one decision and leap of faith away. The more I dodged something, the more it came back around again – harder and stronger than the previous time. The lessons became more prominent, as did the outcome from each. They all had a common denominator; Let Go.

Once this caterpillar had let go of her tree branch, the leaves that she loved so much, the guarantee of the sunlight rising and setting where it does and the other critters she shared her space with, she moved on. She focused on what she knew she wanted; She wanted freedom, she wanted wings, she wanted to be happy without trying to be happy. So off she went. She built on her own branch to continue her journey on. She built herself a cocoon.

If you contemplate the concept of happiness though, you need to really figure out what that word means to you. Is it a means to an end? Is it money? Kids? Is it growing old with the one you love plus 3 dogs? For me, happiness is an inside job. It’s being content in your own company, in your journey and in the environment that you create for yourself. Things won’t go according to plan, and the ride will always present mental, emotional and physical challenges. The onus is on you to take a challenge and say “Cool. How can I learn from this?” “How can this make me a better person?” And so we Grow…

Once inside this cocoon, this caterpillar realised a few things. It was dark, it was quiet and it was lonely. She had never created her own cocoon before. She suddenly had so much time to reflect, to ponder and to figure things out. It was uneasy at first – because who really wanted to be alone, right? She wondered if she had made the right decision to leave her branch, with its leafy greens in abundance. Would she make it out of here okay, or would she fail? She spun circles around her own brain, trying to figure out the path she took and where she was going. The result? Nothing. How could she ever predict her future when there is only now? As Buddah famously once said “This time that we have right now is a gift. This is why it’s called the Present.”

So instead of worrying about her tomorrows, she focused on what was right in front of her. And at that stage, it was a whole load of darkness. So, she lit a candle. She now had light. With this light, she noticed that the walls of her cocoon were very brown and boring. So she took out her paintbrush and she started painting. She explored all her favourite colours; she created swirls, and she drew stars. She painted a rainbow over her head & made a mental note that she was creating her very own pot of Gold.

With all this colour around her, she felt the need for music. So, out came her speakers and she plugged in her favourite playlist. The melody echoed through her, a soothing harmony that made her close her eyes and absorb every fluctuation of the sounds around her. The baseline of her songs ricocheted off the walls & vibrated her bones.  Soon, she was dancing around her cocoon, her laughter bouncing back and forming her very own baseline to the rhythm of her life. She found more music, she learned how to play that music and she discovered all these hidden talents that she never knew she had.

“What else can I do…?” she pondered.

She read books that intrigued this new question in her mind. She nourished her mind, her soul. She danced and brought life to her body. Oh how wonderful it was to feel so vibrant!

The beauty about this elevation of vibrancy in her soul was that from the outside, nobody knew what was going on inside her cocoon. She did this on her own, in her own space. She didn’t splash her new found self through the skies, and she didn’t rely on anyone’s acceptance for justification of her worth. She continued, in silence, to build herself up. She began to physically change. She began to feel a sense of freedom. She began to think differently. She, within herself, was evolving.

She started to think about what really set her life on fire. What was her wildest dream? She had all these tools that she’d equipped herself with – What did she intend on doing with them? She strategized, she worked and she started putting her plans into action. She realized there were risks involved in chasing her dream – But she also knew that she had risked loads to leave her branch. And look how far she had come! She had never flown before, but she could feel deep inside that this is exactly what she was going to do.

She loved her cocoon. She gazed around one evening and saw around her all these little bits of who she was and where she was going. She felt that she had done her best here. She poured out love and energy from her very being. She had succeeded in this phase of her process. She knew, however, that she had to go. If she really wanted to fly, she had to leave. So that night, as she closed her eyes, she bid her cocoon goodnight and prepared herself for the unknown.

She woke to the sound of her music. Softly at first, whispering sweet sounds in her ear. Things that she wanted to hear. She kept her eyes closed so that she could fully embrace the sound and the feeling building inside of her. She swayed her hips. She extended her arms around and allowed her body to succumb to the melody around her. She stretched and breathed and was soon whirling around her cocoon, in her blissful state of dance.

During this state, with her eyes closed & following her own soulful melody, she didn’t realize the change that was happening around her. Her caterpillar cells were literally transforming into what’s aptly called Imaginal Cells – the direct result of all the work she had done and the dreams she was busy turning into a reality. What you imagine becomes your life, you see.

The beat of the drums increased and she started tapping her feet. A smile stuck on her face and her heart light as a feather, she felt like this world was the most exquisite place to live in. She felt so much love and light inside of her, all she wanted to do was to share this with everyone and everything. Her excitement building, she started tapping the walls of her cocoon. It felt so good she didn’t ever want to stop. She was soon strumming to the beat of her own music, creating a harmony that she would carry with her for the rest of her life. Her polite strumming was soon a reverberating drum beat that she didn’t notice was busy cracking the walls of her beautiful cocoon.

Oblivious to the cracks becoming bigger, eyes still shut tight and soul wide open, she didn’t realize that her Intuition was about to give her the best gift of her Life. She continued her dance; her drum beating, her incessant smiling, until all of a sudden the cocoon wasn’t strong or big enough to hold it all in anymore. At the exact moment of her most prominent baseline drop, she smashed the sides of her walls with all her might – her cocoon gave way and flung her and her symphony out into the Universe.

Her eyes shot open. New colours, smells, scenery and emotions struck her all at once. What was this new sensation? What was going on?? “I’m Falling” was the first thought in her mind. A moment of panic and a split second of instinct later, she opened herself up completely and realized with amazement that she, in fact, was Flying.

Flying! Yes, there were her wings. Painted with all her favourite colours. With each flutter, her music followed her through the sky, leaving sunshine and freedom in her wake. She remembered a song from back in her cocoon – “You’re allowed to be what you Could; punch drunk, dumbstruck, pot luck, happy happy.” At that- she did a flip in the air and allowed the ecstatic sounds of glee escape her lips. Other insects looked up at her with awe. They felt her light. They felt her happiness and felt inclined to share that happiness. At that moment, she knew that she had made it.

Down below, she could see an abundance of flowers of numerous colours. Trees, bushes and lakes. She saw other butterflies on their own independent flight pattern through life. She realized now, that she could do whatever she wanted. Yes, she was only one butterfly in this kaleidoscope of others  flying around inspiring the world, but she was content in knowing that at the end of the rainbow she had built her new life around – In her Soul, was her very own pot of Gold.