Why the Butterfly?

I realise, that having the logo of my charity as a butterfly draws some laughs from those that know me. You see, I love pretty things, and a butterfly is pretty - so many people assume I picked the logo purely because of that.
 
For the record, those people would be wrong.
 
Whilst I do like butterflies, the reason a butterfly takes pride of place in ThinkTwice is all because of a friend who sent me a card one day adorned with butterflies. I was leaving my job to begin a degree in theology at LST, and, knowing something of my struggles with mental illness, my friend wrote in my card about how butterflies emerge from the darkness of the chrysallis into a new phase of life completely transformed coming out of the darkness and into the light. She quoted that beautiful verse from Isaiah 43:19 which reads “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up - do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wasteland and a stream in the desert.” It felt somehow like a promise of hope for my life.
 
During those first whirlwind months at LST I didn’t give much thought to the butterfly, or the verse but I began, very slowly, in tiny increments, to recover. At the end of my first year I had a placement with the Hertfordshire Partnership Trust’s Spiritual Care Department, travelling around the region visiting different wards, units and patients. It was a transformational time and “Break my heart for what breaks yours” became my heart cry. It was around this time that I decided that I wanted to do something, something to make a difference to those walking in the dull and oppressive darkness of severe mental illness.
 
It was one of those weird things. I woke up in the night and thought “ThinkTwice” - I can’t remember now why I felt it was a significant thought but I jotted it down and went back to bed.  About an hour later I awoke again, the image of a butterfly burned behind my eyes. This was it - ThinkTwice was going to be a charity, my mission. The butterfly represented, not only the journey from the chrysalis, but also the two wings demonstrated changing people’s perceptions of mental illness. Making something new out of something hard and painful.
 
And, throughout the development of ThinkTwice -the name and the logo have stuck. ThinkTwice seeks to educate churches and leaders about what mental illness... and what mental illness is not through talks, the small group resources and sessions. The aim is to start conversations and invite compassion. The aim is to prevent those throwaway comments which can do so much damage - “Real christians shouldn’t get depressed”, “Anxiety is wrong because it says in the Bible that we shouldn’t be anxious”. Instead, ThinkTwice exists to help the Church live out the mission and commission of Jesus - to love others as we love ourselves, make disciples and walk alongside those who are hurting, hoping for those who have lost all hope.
 
If you’d like to know more, you can contact the team via email at think.twice@mail.com, follow us on twitter @ThinkTwiceInfo, ‘Like’ us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ThinkTwiceInfo or visit our website at www.thinktwiceinfo.org .