When You Realize a Vision Has Been Becoming All Along
Our Visions Take Time…remember, so much is happening that you cannot see, just like the chrysalis.
I got off a call recently and had one of those realizations that makes you stop for a moment and see your own journey differently.
The call was with a changemaker I've had the joy of partnering with for nearly three years.
When we first connected, she was completing her internship and working within two different schools. Since then, our work together has continued to evolve as her work has evolved. Today, she's an assistant principal at a new school—and she reached out because her community is navigating change and looking for ways to support emotional regulation.
They were looking for an author.
They were also looking for someone who could support their community through change.
…And she knew I could do both.
As we talked about what might support her school, something suddenly clicked:
This is what I envisioned six years ago.
And while this realization was deeply personal, I couldn't help but wonder how many of us are carrying possibilities that haven't fully taken flight yet. Ideas we've imagined. Work we've begun. Visions we can feel, even when the circumstances aren't yet ready for them to fully emerge.
The Vision Was There Before I Could Fully Live It
When Big Change, Better You, Beautiful World was published in 2020, my intention was never simply to write a children's book, read it to children, and put it back on the shelf.
I saw the book as an opportunity for something larger.
Yes, I wanted children to experience the story and recognize their own ability to navigate change.
But I also envisioned the adults supporting them—educators, families, support staff, coaches, therapists, and others—learning and practicing these skills alongside them.
When The Superpower of Your HEART followed, that vision continued.
The books could offer children accessible language and tools. The adults surrounding them could deepen their own understanding and practice.
Together, those shared experiences could become something that lived beyond the pages of a book.
The possibility was always across generations.
But at the time, I wasn't fully able to offer it.
I was still an educator. Later, I was guiding a nonprofit supporting mindfulness within schools. Both experiences profoundly shaped who I am and the work I offer today. They gave me years of experience working alongside educators, facilitating professional learning, supporting school communities, and understanding what implementation actually looks like beyond a single inspiring experience.
And yet, those roles also meant that I wasn't in a position to fully develop and offer the vision I held for my own books.
There was one opportunity during the pandemic when I was able to provide a virtual professional learning experience connected to my book.
And then, for years, that fuller vision waited.
Six Years Later, I Can See It Differently
Today, I have The Butterfly Within®.
This is my work.
And for the first time, I can bring together pieces of my journey that once existed somewhat separately.
Through experiences for adults like Guided Metamorphosis™ and now the opportunity to deepen the learning surrounding my children's books, I'm beginning to see even more clearly what it means for this work to create impact across generations…
Author.
Educator.
Professional learning facilitator.
Transformational Guide.
The books themselves.
And the work I now do supporting people as they navigate change, strengthen their connection to themselves, and become more of who they are.
Suddenly, I can offer what I imagined all those years ago.
A school can absolutely choose an author visit as a meaningful experience on its own.
And for communities that want to go deeper, there can be more.
Adults can experience professional learning connected to the skills within the book. Children can then encounter those ideas through an interactive author experience. Staff can have intentional time afterward to integrate what they've learned into their environments and practices. When a community wants continued support, coaching can help deepen that integration over time.
It isn't about adding more for the sake of doing more,
It's about creating the possibility for the learning to live across generations.
Children learning.
Adults learning.
And the environments surrounding children becoming places where those shared skills can continue to be practiced and ripple out into the world as a Butterfly Effect.
Maybe It Wasn't Supposed to Happen Six Years Ago
This is the part of the realization that has stayed with me.
For six years, I could have looked at this original vision and thought:
I still haven't done it.
But sitting on that call, I didn't see six years of something not happening.
I saw six years of becoming ready for it.
I had experiences I hadn't had in 2020.
I developed skills I didn't yet have.
Relationships grew.
My work evolved.
The Butterfly Within® emerged.
The changemaker on the other side of that call had been evolving, too.
Our paths first crossed years ago under completely different circumstances. Neither of us could have known exactly where our work would lead.
Yet here we were, having another conversation because the relationship continued.
That matters to me.
I believe deeply in connection—not simply making a contact, exchanging information, or completing one project together, but in the relationships that continue to evolve as we evolve.
Sometimes one conversation becomes a partnership.
Sometimes one partnership creates an opportunity neither person could have predicted at the beginning.
Sometimes another person's becoming meets your own at exactly the moment when something new becomes possible.
Possibility Has Its Own Timing
A butterfly doesn't begin developing its wings when it emerges from the chrysalis...
The possibility of those wings was there long before they could be seen.
There is a process that cannot be rushed because we know what might eventually become possible.
I think our visions can be like that, too.
Sometimes we can see something before we have the circumstances, experience, relationships, resources, or readiness to fully live it.
That doesn't necessarily mean the vision was wrong.
It doesn't mean we've fallen behind.
…Maybe some possibilities need time.
……Maybe we're becoming the person who can hold them.
………Maybe other people are becoming ready to meet us there.
…………Maybe circumstances are shifting in ways we can't see yet.
And then one day, we find ourselves in a conversation and realize:
Oh! This is what I've been becoming ready for!
Six years later, I get to offer more of what I imagined when those first pages came into the world.
Somehow, after everything that has happened in between, I can offer it differently—and perhaps more fully—than I could have then.
Invitational Reflection:
What have you envisioned that may still be unfolding in ways you cannot yet see?
What might be ready to emerge now that wasn't possible for you before?
Who has continued to walk alongside you as you've grown—and what has become possible because of that connection?
Butterfly Wisdom 🦋
The butterfly reminds us that not every possibility is meant to emerge the moment we imagine it. Some need time before they are ready to spread their wings.
Interested in connecting for an author event or experience? Want to share your own story and reflections?
The Butterfly Within Me Sees, Honors, and Values The Butterfly Within You,
