Speaker 1: Creativity is an addiction unplugged because we will always say
yes to creativity, totally uncut because we all make mistakes.
So let's turn it into a tool. This is arrow unplugged.
I am a poet, one that just happens to write
in a forest. My forest is the rainbow forest right
here in South Charlotte, North Carolina. When I enter this
forest or trade agan, I am a poet, one that
just happens to write in a forest. My forest is
the rainbow forest right here in South Charlotte, North Carolina.
When I enter this forest or any other collection of trees,
I never know what I'm going to write about. These
aren't my words. These are the lyrics from Rainbow Forest,
chapter number three hundred sixty six, April twenty nine, twenty
twenty three. A tree never stops shedding its leaves and branches.
Oh yeah, the experts say it's the tree's way of
conserving water. Hormones inside the trees are constantly sending out
signals to cells. Now I bring this up because my
forest floor has several fallen branches. To humanize this forest
floor looks like I'm stealing from the process. I need
to understand that these fallen leaves and branches during these
spring months and summer months helps me understand how the
trees are actually offering energy to the soil holding onto
their roots. The deer lay inside the large branches, bugs
eat away getting their nutrients. There's so much nature going
on that the human's choice should be that of being
a student. If it looks like a fire danger, of
course I'm gonna get in there. I'm going to clean
that out with the right equipment. But now it's a
garden of sorts, a place of interesting new challenges and
great stories to be written as well as witnessed. It's
moving at the pace of nature with a forest that
has been my partner for thirty two years. We do
live in this age where everything is just going so quickly.
I mean, I can't believe that this was written on
April twenty ninth, twenty twenty three, and the physical date
where I am right now is March fifteenth toenty twenty four.
I don't know where you're going to be when you
pick up on this podcast, but time is moving quickly.
But to these trees in this forest, I'm not so
sure that's true, because they love to take their own
moments and create ways to strengthen up the forest floor,
because once again, that's where their roots are. That's where
they get a lot of energy from the soil as
well as from the rain when it falls from the sky.
But the journey of a tree is so so at
its own pace. When we planted seventeen hundred trees in
this forest in nineteen ninety seven, remember it's now twenty
twenty four, but when we did it in nineteen ninety seven,
they were just little six inch seedlings, and today they're
not skyscraping, but they're beautiful. They provide so much for
other natural things, such as over here to the left
side of the forest, we have a hawk's nest this year.
It is absolutely fantastic to see how they built that
nest and how they're going to raise another hawk. There's
nothing wrong with getting your hands off the clock. Learning
how to embrace a day by its own speed and
measure gives your heart a little place of rest. Someone
asked me yesterday at the essential job, do you love
it when you get really super busy and time flies,
and I go, you know, I look at it differently.
I look at it as it's really super busy. I'm
going to be aware of how busy it is and
how long the lines are, and I'm not going to say, oh,
hurry up, let's get this stay over with. I'm going
to embrace the long distance between starting and finishing, because
once again, I started writing this on April twenty ninth,
twenty twenty three. In today's physical date is March fifteenth,
twenty twenty four. Time flew by that fast. Maybe it's
time we start looking at life like a tree. Find
your pace and take your time, and during those times
drop some leaves and branches and fertilize the soil beneath
so that your roots have a solid walk. I'm Marilyn.
These are not my words. These are the lyrics from
Rainbow Forest.