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. In twenty fifteen, I stepped into a
very special collection of trees at the Billygraham Library right
here in Charlotte, North Carolina. While there I did nothing
but write. But they were never my words. They were
the lyrics from Billy's Forest. Nearly two years later, God
spoke directly into my heart. He said, dude, it's time
to grow beyond the library, to write in other collections
of trees, mainly your own forest in South Charlotte, North Carolina.
You see in every place that I write, I always
believe one thing. They are not my words. These are
the lyrics from Billy's Forest, Chapter number three hundred fifty two.
January twenty first, twenty twenty three. Is it okay to
listen to music while walking through a forest? Is it
is natural as the bird's whistle or a rabbit scampering?
There have been a lot of social media posts written
about how wrong it is to bring music. Hikers and
those wanting natural solitude are denying their mind, body, and
soul from the presence of everything that is natural, and
it's singing to you inside any type of forest that
comes from Smithsonian Magazine, the rustling of leaves, crunching things
beneath your feet, and eclectic mix of bird songs. But
that hasn't stopped Pete m Weir from creating I forest
as he immerses himself into several different sounds and experiences.
Iforest dot Org not only brings the beauty of the
forest outward, but the angelic voices that he's invited into
his sights and sounds. They're amazingly spiritual. I love the
term that he uses. It's in one of his songs,
the sky beneath our feet. While some say it's wrong
to bring your earbuds and Spotify playlist into a forest,
Pete shares his interpretation of his personal experiences. Whereas I,
being a transition walker, I need to listen to the
wind carrying the stories. What is your personal view and
direction when you take that walk, because walking really is
one of the greatest calming moments of your choices made
on a daily basis. My dog Jazzy and I go
through this forest in South Charlotte every day. We've been
here a billion times because I've been here since nineteen
ninety two and it's twenty twenty three. Does it ever
change every day? There's always something different in this forest.
And it helps me understand as a human being that
if this forest is changing every day, as am I
and learning to accept the seasonal changes, maybe me my
seasons could be every other day, whereas this forest goes
through it four times a year, maybe more if you
pay closer attention. But is it wrong to take a
digital device with you? I feel extremely guilty when I
record a podcast that's called Vocal Defrag. When I'm walking
through the forest, I am physically receiving everything that's in
that moment of now, and it's become a podcast because
all of these things that are really just shoving itself
through me on these daily walks when I'm not recording,
I lose them. By the time I get home, I
have forgotten them. I don't know what I was thinking
about yet in that moment of receiving it was very
very much like what Pete says, the sky beneath our
feet if you live in a large city, if you
live on a farm land, wherever you place your seeds
and wherever you put your feet, one of the things
that you should do at least three to four times
a week is to take that walk. I learned how
to take those walks not because I'm from the state
of Montana, but because when I would go for those
walks as a young child, music came into me, and
I was the crazy child that believed that, Oh my god,
I guess I'm the one that's been chosen to do this,
only to learn that everybody receives music, everybody is creative,
everybody is welcome to the celebration of receiving. Think of
yourself as being that next step to somebody else's beautiful discovery.
Because once you have received art, a message, even the
idea of bringing peace to your own personal life, You're
going to wear it and probably wear it well, and
that's going to change others around you. I'm erl These
are not my words. These are the lyrics from Billy's
Forest