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. This 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 seven, May sixth, twenty twenty three. Is it
only I who can experience the sunlight in my eyes
while writing so bright as it shines through these springtime
leaves inside a tiny forest in South Charlotte, North Carolina.
My vision has been stalled because the angle of the
sun is blinding this moment from being written. It's as
if God is toying with my imagination. How much do
you really want to write, mister poet? I giggle while
staring into the halo of energy lighting this moment with
blessed opportun unities. Looking beneath the sun, I see the
forest in all its greatness, Each tree limb reaching to
gather as much love from the universe as it can hold.
And for now we wait because we're blinded. For where
we stand is in a place that is known for change,
and like so much of what we experience, it's all
going to be forgotten, which is why I write about
little things such as the sunlight being in my eyes
while painting words into place. I'm never alone. I'm always
within this forest, your places where you are challenged, where
you are blinded, where you're stalled because something that is
much greater than you is in the way. Do you
have the patience to wait for the change, knowing that
change is every day, every minute, every hour, or do
you rush into the moment blindedly knowing that something might
go wrong and probably will go wrong. How do you
handle those moments when you know for a fact that
you have been stopped for a reason, but you don't
understand why it happens. That's where stepping back gives you
that opportunity to not only listen, but to learn to
slow yourself down, to not always be on the edge
of anxiety, thinking that you can take everything away from
what has given you pain, when in reality that pain
might serve as a border for you to ay, wait
a second, back off just a little bit, or to
listen to it so you can grow beyond it. When
you have those moments that tend to anger so many
because everything just stops, take the time to just patiently
be present. Because we complain so much about how fast
time is moving that when we do come into one
of these moments where things stop, we feel like that
we're being invaded, when in fact, it's the universe teaching
you how to walk and stop running. I'm Maril. These
are not my words. These are the lyrics from Rainbow Forest.