Butterflies, Synchronicities and The Beginning of a New Adventure

This season I decided to run CHICK like a tv show. This meant I would act as the showrunner, the person who gives the show its tone and direction, and bring on several writers to create a “writer’s room”.

I received over 85 writer submissions and from that whittled it down to four writers and one writer’s assistant.

This week I’m thrilled to introduce you to the writers who will help create the adventure Lisa goes on in season two of CHICK.

Music by Kevin MacLeod

The writers and I meet every Saturday for four hours to “break the story” as they like to say in the television world. We are figuring out the journey each character will take, the overall arc of the season and the underlying messages we want to explore. Once we finish breaking stories each writer will be assigned episodes which they will go off and write based on the outline we create in the writer’s room.

This past Saturday some of our discussions centered around symbols and cool ways to use them to add layers to the story visually. We also talked about synchronicities and the magic they can play in life.

At one point we talked about the symbolic journey of the butterfly. Later that day this picture appeared in my facebook feed with this caption.

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” ~Maya Angelou

I shared it with the writers. It felt like a synchronous confirmation that we are headed in the right direction for season two. My sharing that image led Sandra to share a poem with me she had written years earlier. She said the poem had dropped from the Universe.

I’m not normally a poetry person but hers really touched me because it captured so beautifully the journey we must take if we are to realize our greatness and attain superhero status.

Sandy doesn’t normally share her poetry, but she succumbed to my begging, so if you enjoy it please send her some love with a comment or a tweet.

I hope you are inspired by it as much as I was.  Enjoy!

Chrysalis

From the beginning
I was fed a steady diet
Of societal mores and
Expectations

They tasted fine
At the time

I grew plump on them
Until I was ready
to spout them myself

I even took the initiative to
Wrap myself in a protective shell
Methodically constructed with
Strand upon strand of their logic
Until I could not move
And nearly suffocated
Under the dense layers
Of reason, politeness, practicality,
And, above all,
being nice

The claustrophobia
And oppressiveness
Surprised me
Because this
Is what I had striven for
It was, I had been told,
The right thing to do

And yet my body
And my soul
Wanted freedom
More than anything
I had ever wanted before

But I did not know if I could survive
the effort of a rebirth
The first time being so hard

 I struggled anyway
Not realizing until that moment
Just how thick and soft and enticing
The layers I had fashioned really were

I wanted to rest
To stay cushioned in a place that felt
So safe

Yet it was dark
And I longed for the light

So I fought again
To free myself
From the tangle
Of my early sustenance

And when the first crack of light
Appeared like a beam of truth
To lead the way
I tore at my bonds
With a single-minded intensity

Until, at last, the path was clear
And I was able to stand
For the first time on my own
And breathe
For the first time
The clear air of freedom

It was then
I looked down and noticed
I had wings.

By Sandra Payne

What challenges have you broken free of in your life?   Share them with us in the comments below. 

If you’d like to connect with the CHICK writers, hook up with them on Twitter or leave us a comment below. We’d love to hear from you.

Ben Paddon @BenPaddon
Bryan Snowden @BryanSnowden
Kristyne Fetsic @cinema_in_space
Sandra Payne @SPWrite
Vince Jordan @jvince
Kai Soremekun @kaisoremekun