Arroe Unplugged Page One Thousand Eight Hundred Fourteen Lyrics From Billys Forest

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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'm 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 Billy Graham Library right
here in Charlotte, North Carolina. While there I did nothing

(00:22):
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, come on, now,
let's write in other collections of trees, mainly your own
forest in South Charlotte, North Carolina. You see in every
place that I have written, the spirit of Billy's lyrics
vibrate the purpose and plan that God has put into play.

(00:42):
I never know what I'm going to write about when
I enter any forest, which gives us plenty of time
to talk about it in the end. Remember these aren't
my words. These are the lyrics from Billy's Forest, Chapter
number three hundred forty eight. December twenty sixth, twenty twenty two.
McDowell Nature Preserve. Winter's Bite our coldest camping trip yet

(01:03):
it's only nineteen degrees. We have no water, the pipes
are frozen, yet the forest air is amazingly calm, peace filled,
and willing to embrace our sudden, unexpected changes. We sat
with nature for several hours, no reason to rush in,
every reason to fall witness to the nine deer living
in a real nature preserve, and they're working at their

(01:25):
own pace and not my city slicker, inner city forest lifestyle.
Any forest makes me a silent watcher. I don't arrive
to the roots and continuations expecting to be wooed and wowed.
That only happens when the atmosphere is ready to share
and you've got to step into it. It's not coming
to you never. The last thing we want to do

(01:46):
is make a footprint inside this preserve, to belong to
its presence, not take over. Winter's bite humbled us immediately.
I mean, it's so cold, so frozen, yet we didn't
return home. We're at our situation with all living things
in the way of staying honest and approachable, to be
available like that of a student and or a teacher,

(02:08):
and our school happens to be this forest. Do we
run away from things too quickly? Not in this situation
on December twenty six, twenty twenty two. I vividly remember
it because we had no water, it was nineteen degrees.
What were we going to do? We had to think
like survivalists. We had to stay warm. Like survivalists. Do

(02:31):
we run away from things too quickly when in fact,
in those moments we could be learning things because the
way of the world is a constant change. Right now,
I realize we're all talking about this climate change and
the world is heating up, but not really, It's going
to have its opposite effects in the colder weather as well.

(02:52):
Are we running away too quickly? And how can we
plant our feet without putting a footprint in the sand?
Running away too quickly leaves you out of the story.
I will always share the journey of moving from Montana
to North Carolina in the broadcast industry, and I've called
it my biggest mistake because I wanted to move too quickly.

(03:16):
I wanted to get to the larger markets really fast.
I mean, my god, I was going to be twenty
five years old one day. I had to be there,
and that being there, I wanted to be the guy
in Los Angeles doing the morning radio show. But I
took that jump from Montana to Carolina in one big swoop,

(03:36):
and I missed out on a lot of broadcasting education
by missing all those markets. Buildings was two fifty seven.
Charlotte at that point in time was market size number
thirty seven. I missed out on a lot. And I
ask you, are we moving too quickly? And it's moments
like this one I decembered twenty six, twenty twenty two,

(03:56):
where I realized, wait a second, I didn't run away
from this, And because I didn't run away, nature almost
embraced us. The important thing wasn't that we needed water.
The important thing was is that we stopped and we viewed,
we studied, We became a part of and we didn't
try to redesign the situation like that of someone who

(04:19):
runs away too quickly. How can we embrace that to
be able to say, I'm not perfect, I'm not going
to be perfect. I'm not looking for perfect things. I
just want to become a part of this, living in
the presence of what is your right now, be okay

(04:41):
with being the student, and be okay with maybe one
day you're going to teach it. Where is your classroom? Mine,
on that particular day was the forest. I'm ryl. These
are not my words. These are the lyrics from Billy's
Forest