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 write in a forest. I go there to listen.
What started at the Billigraham Library in twenty fifteen, right
here in Charlotte, North Carolina, has evolved into a lifelong
commitment and journey. Something is always moving through each and
every one of us. It's our calling. These aren't my words,
These are the lyrics from Billy's Forest, chapter number three
hundred forty six, December tenth, twenty twenty two. I stepped
outside the car into a world of bright, blinking Christmas lights,
and I was filled with a low glow of holiday
music and sound. I was the only one in the village,
a stark reminder of what it was like during the
COVID lockdown. I requested that my wife and I and
our dog returned to this beautiful, decorated place one more time,
just as we did numerous times during the COVID lockdown.
Only a few stores were opened last evening, unlike the
lockdown period where everything was closed. You could see the
bright colors in the windows back in twenty twenty, but
all of the posters were promoting things for something that
was coming up in twenty twenty. They were left there
in a place that nobody could change because nobody could
get inside during the COVID lockdown. It was almost like
time was saying goodbye, goodbye. But we got out eventually,
And this was my first time in a long time
to be in this moment inside this village where I
felt that coldness of being alone, the only person there.
At ten thirty pm, I had to go back with
my wife and with my dog. And the reason being
was based one hundred percent on we're not in the
lockdown anymore, but my imagination became lockdown the night before.
This place had to become a moment of escape. We
don't have to talk about the village with the Christmas
lights in the Christmas music to know that we all
have those places where we lock ourselves down. We become
introverts in a way of living because we don't want
to face or we have seen something that has put
us back in a place where it's like I'm not
going out there again. I can't. I just can't. Mentally,
we try to reach forward with our fingertips, only to
get them slapped back by reality's bite. But we've got
to be able to take ourselves and put ourselves out
there in the realms of what is real. Someone once said, hey,
you know, you'll never get sick if you stay home.
That's absolutely not true. That it's not true, because it's
what you invite into your home that's going to make
you sick. My sister was very, very protective of my
eighty year old mother during the COVID lockdown. She wouldn't
let her step one foot outside that door. My mother
passed away because of COVID, because of someone coming into
the home that they trusted. See that's what happens. You
can't just sit there and lock yourself up. You want
to see a good movie. See The Whale with Brendan Fraser.
That movie will open your heart. He tried to get
into other people's lives by way of being a school teacher,
but his picture was blocked. Do you find yourself in
that same situation. You're trying to be a part of
the community, but you're keeping yourself blocked from physically being
in the community. Stepping outside the car at ten thirty
PM and there. I was in this village, all by myself.
The music was playing and the lights were Christmas beautiful,
but I was the only one there. We've got to
break free of our personal lockdowns. I'm Errol. These are
not my words. These are the lyrics from Billy's Forest