People often ask me why I write children’s books. The truth is, I didn’t set out to write one. I set out to tell stories that I have lived.
The Caterpillar and the Butterfly was the first. And like all firsts, it came from something deep inside—something I couldn’t quite ignore. A message that I had to share. A desire to bring hope into the lives of others. I had been thinking a lot about fear, and about what happens when we move through it instead of around it. The answer is called courage. And this courage is the transformational energy that flies you through that experience—that fear is really faith turned inside out. A truth that I live daily.
I’ve always loved the saying: Fear is faith turned inside out. And as I sat with that idea, the image of a caterpillar came to me. This small, earthbound creature that turns itself completely inside out to become something radiant. Something that flies. Something beautiful. Something angelic. In that metamorphosis, I see a reflection of my own journey.
Like many people, I grew up feeling different. And like many people, I had to learn how to keep going even when I was afraid. What I discovered along the way is that courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s the saddle that holds you in place for the ride. The brace of an unknown journey that suddenly gets lift, and as you begin to rise, embodied in a mindset of hope, you float ever so gently into a place called faith, a destination that empowers you to know you can achieve anything you want.
That’s the heart of The Caterpillar and the Butterfly. It’s a book about transformation. An endless hope that delivers you to a place called faith winging your desire with peace and promise.
The Caterpillar and the Butterfly has three lessons—simple, yes, but also profound, and rooted in lived experience:
1. Be kind, even when you’re afraid.
2. Try new things, even when you’re afraid.
3. Believe in yourself, even when you’re afraid.
That last one has carried me through the most important chapters of my life. And it’s the one I hope children—and the adults reading to them—carry forward too.
Writing this book and seeing it come to life through words and illustration, was a kind of blooming for me. A way to offer endless hope to others. A message, a memory, a mirror for those moments when we need to remember what we’re all capable of.
I believe that stories are how we grow, and if we’re lucky, they help us bloom into our very own brilliance, allowing us to always live happily ever!