How It Began

     A Piece Of My HeArt Project began several years ago when D. Violet Butterfly ended up in the Alta Bates Burn Center. Being stuck in the hospital for over a month for reconstructive surgeries and having nothing better to do, Violet remembered the little paper beads her friend, David, taught her to make several years before. She decided to start making these beads to pass time, hoping that it would get her mind off of her troubles and help her heal. Violet could have focused on her troubles, she had quite a few, but she chose to focus on creating the beads.

     One bead lead to another and soon Violet had beads filling her hospital room. As the beads multiplied so did her visitors. Many different people came to visit her, the ones that didn’t know her called her “the bead lady with the magic beads”.                                              

     Eventually, Violet began making necklaces with these “magic beads”, to share them with the people around her. As she was doing this, she thought about how people were being affected by them and how she is connected in some way to each of these people, even the ones she had just met, by the tiniest of things. She realized that we all are connected in some way or another, each of us being like pieces of a puzzle, everyone and everything connecting, creating the big picture. It was then Violet decided to use puzzle pieces as pendants for the bead necklaces, to remind people that we are all connected.

     The evidence that we are all connected was all around. Her best friend, David, had shown her how to make the beads. Had he not, there would be no project. Nurses brought in patients to visit the bead lady, had they not, Violet would have not realized how we are connected by even the smallest of things. She would have also ran out of supplies to make the beads, if the nurses had not brought her stacks of magazines. Two of Violets friends also visited her which affected her deeply, one walked across an entire city every day to visit her and the other took a four hour journey on buses and trains through several cities to visit her. This strengthened her spirit and inspired her to continue with the beads, knowing that people cared. Even a homeless woman was connected to the magic of Violet and her beads . 

     Everything came full circle, the day Violet was approached by a homeless woman named Dee. All Dee wanted from Violet was a drink of water. Violet had seen the way others had treated the woman and had compassion for her. She gave the woman a drink of her water and what the woman gave back was invaluable. Dee noticed the necklaces and began to tell Violet about them, not the other way around as one may expect. Dee told Violet that the magic of the beads was that no two beads were alike and yet they worked together to create something bigger and better than what they were alone. Dee told Violet that each bead was different but the same, each had a life of its own but they were all connected. Violet had not really thought of it that way before. She knew they were connected and were told they were magical but she never really knew how or why. Now, she knew. Then, Dee left, not asking for a single thing from Violet other than a drink of water. Yet, she gave so much by connecting to Violet so deeply. It was then Violet realized that people you may think you have nothing in common with and no connection whatsoever to may end up being the ones you have the deepest connections with and that it doesn’t cost anything to make those connections but the value of these connections are priceless. 

     After that, Violet began to carry her necklaces with her, giving them to anyone that she made a connection with. Some people asked if they could buy a necklace from her. In the beginning, Violet wouldn’t sell them. She knew they were worth more than money so she simply told them that they weren’t for sale but that anyone could acquire a necklace as long as they gave her something of value.

     Then, people had to actually think about what is of value to them. This wasn’t as easy as it sounded. Most people don’t ever think about what is more valuable than money. Oddly enough, when it came down to it, the things seemed to be of the most value to people were things that connected them to other people. It was then that the project was born.

     The project has evolved and grown, since that day, but the ultimate goal has never changed. It has always been Violet’s goal to simply remind people that we are all connected. By every little thing we are and every little thing we do, good or bad, we all have a role in creating the big picture. It is a universal truth that what we think, say and do matters and Violet wants to share this truth with as many people as she can.

 

     Violet still has everything of value that anyone has given her for a necklace. She holds each of them as preciously as she would any jewels.