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Speaker 1: Creativity is an addiction, unplugged because we will always say

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yes to creativity, totally uncut because we all make mistakes.

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So let's turn it into a tool. This is arrow unplugged.

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I write in a forest. I go there to listen.

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What started at the Billigraham Library in twenty fifteen, right

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here in Charlotte, North Carolina, has evolved into a lifelong

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commitment and journey. Something is always moving through each and

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every one of us. It's our calling. These aren't my words,

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These are the lyrics from Billy's Forest, chapter number three

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hundred forty six, December tenth, twenty twenty two. I stepped

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outside the car into a world of bright, blinking Christmas lights,

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and I was filled with a low glow of holiday

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music and sound. I was the only one in the village,

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a stark reminder of what it was like during the

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COVID lockdown. I requested that my wife and I and

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our dog returned to this beautiful, decorated place one more time,

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just as we did numerous times during the COVID lockdown.

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Only a few stores were opened last evening, unlike the

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lockdown period where everything was closed. You could see the

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bright colors in the windows back in twenty twenty, but

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all of the posters were promoting things for something that

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was coming up in twenty twenty. They were left there

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in a place that nobody could change because nobody could

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get inside during the COVID lockdown. It was almost like

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time was saying goodbye, goodbye. But we got out eventually,

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And this was my first time in a long time

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to be in this moment inside this village where I

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felt that coldness of being alone, the only person there.

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At ten thirty pm, I had to go back with

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my wife and with my dog. And the reason being

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was based one hundred percent on we're not in the

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lockdown anymore, but my imagination became lockdown the night before.

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This place had to become a moment of escape. We

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don't have to talk about the village with the Christmas

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lights in the Christmas music to know that we all

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have those places where we lock ourselves down. We become

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introverts in a way of living because we don't want

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to face or we have seen something that has put

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us back in a place where it's like I'm not

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going out there again. I can't. I just can't. Mentally,

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we try to reach forward with our fingertips, only to

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get them slapped back by reality's bite. But we've got

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to be able to take ourselves and put ourselves out

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there in the realms of what is real. Someone once said, hey,

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you know, you'll never get sick if you stay home.

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That's absolutely not true. That it's not true, because it's

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what you invite into your home that's going to make

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you sick. My sister was very, very protective of my

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eighty year old mother during the COVID lockdown. She wouldn't

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let her step one foot outside that door. My mother

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passed away because of COVID, because of someone coming into

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the home that they trusted. See that's what happens. You

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can't just sit there and lock yourself up. You want

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to see a good movie. See The Whale with Brendan Fraser.

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That movie will open your heart. He tried to get

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into other people's lives by way of being a school teacher,

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but his picture was blocked. Do you find yourself in

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that same situation. You're trying to be a part of

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the community, but you're keeping yourself blocked from physically being

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in the community. Stepping outside the car at ten thirty

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PM and there. I was in this village, all by myself.

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The music was playing and the lights were Christmas beautiful,

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but I was the only one there. We've got to

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break free of our personal lockdowns. I'm Errol. These are

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not my words. These are the lyrics from Billy's Forest