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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 am a poet, one that just happens to write

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in a forest. This forest is the Rainbow Forest, right

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here in South Charlotte, North Carolina. When I enter this

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forest or any other collection of trees, I never know

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what I'm going to write about. These aren't my words.

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These are the lyrics from Rainbow Forest, chapter number three

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hundred sixty seven, May sixth, twenty twenty three. Is it

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only I who can experience the sunlight in my eyes

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while writing so bright as it shines through these springtime

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leaves inside a tiny forest in South Charlotte, North Carolina.

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My vision has been stalled because the angle of the

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sun is blinding this moment from being written. It's as

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if God is toying with my imagination. How much do

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you really want to write, mister poet? I giggle while

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staring into the halo of energy lighting this moment with

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blessed opportun unities. Looking beneath the sun, I see the

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forest in all its greatness, Each tree limb reaching to

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gather as much love from the universe as it can hold.

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And for now we wait because we're blinded. For where

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we stand is in a place that is known for change,

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and like so much of what we experience, it's all

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going to be forgotten, which is why I write about

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little things such as the sunlight being in my eyes

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while painting words into place. I'm never alone. I'm always

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within this forest, your places where you are challenged, where

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you are blinded, where you're stalled because something that is

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much greater than you is in the way. Do you

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have the patience to wait for the change, knowing that

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change is every day, every minute, every hour, or do

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you rush into the moment blindedly knowing that something might

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go wrong and probably will go wrong. How do you

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handle those moments when you know for a fact that

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you have been stopped for a reason, but you don't

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understand why it happens. That's where stepping back gives you

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that opportunity to not only listen, but to learn to

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slow yourself down, to not always be on the edge

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of anxiety, thinking that you can take everything away from

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what has given you pain, when in reality that pain

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might serve as a border for you to ay, wait

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a second, back off just a little bit, or to

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listen to it so you can grow beyond it. When

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you have those moments that tend to anger so many

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because everything just stops, take the time to just patiently

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be present. Because we complain so much about how fast

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time is moving that when we do come into one

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of these moments where things stop, we feel like that

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we're being invaded, when in fact, it's the universe teaching

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you how to walk and stop running. I'm Maril. These

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are not my words. These are the lyrics from Rainbow Forest.