The outside atmosphere plays games on our mind and body. We watched a fuzzy caterpillar scamper across the forest floor. They normally don't move so quickly. The caterpillar represents transformation. Learning how to use its senses wisely. Research shows they've also got powerful intuition. While having two different antennas working their own jobs on things that are distant and far. Too bad humans don't have such tools. Our heads and hearts are too busy wishfully hoping for things not important to other creations in nature.

Not all of us are blessed to have a forest to roam within on a daily basis. We do have areas in our towns and cities that provide well deserved peace and forgiveness. How much of its history do you know? Is it just a place or has a relationship developed? There are many places I'd love to take my writing instrument and paper but when the heart feels it's developed a deeper relationship with the area that offers inspiration it'll invite me back to the wonders of the universe by way of growing new fields of release.

Being a daily writer I'm blessed to sit inside this forest to receive the message from the presence of a universe so giving. Inside this journal called The Lyric's From Billy's forest I have four years of experience presented in word. How each entry widens the heart to this collection of trees. These are changing times. So hot that fruit are sizzling on trees in the UK. What do the other shapes of nature hear while we're experiencing the same climate? By the time this journal is complete will the trees still be talking with me?

In August of 2022 I was diagnosed with Covid. To embrace the challenges I stepped into my forest. To be present with the lake, the trees, the creek and everything else the summer was willing to share. This forest has served as a great place of inner healing not only as a writer but through life's darkest times. Where is your solitude and or universal connection? That one area where you go to receive. Not take! To know you are in the arms of something much bigger and more caring.

The things we plant and replant. When do they serve as an invitation? This is a story about Elephant Ears. A plant that was taken from a school that had closed and replanted in my forest in south Charlotte, NC. But I failed it. Elephant Ears need lots of sun. So I replanted it in a pot then set it on the deck 23 feet above the forest floor. They loved it. Winter came too early. I brought the Elephant Ears indoors. My disaster artist dog doesn't like plants. I turn this experience to our personal lives. What are we doing with the things we plant and how are they surviving without our help? How many times do you have to replant something only to lose it by means of something totally out of your control?

The layers of life that exist around us go ignored because we're more focused on gripping victories more than lessons to keep. Something as simple as a forest preparing for another day of summer heat can be used as a tool in life. The daily discipline is to study the objects not only in front of you but also in the rear view mirror. There's an amazing amount of peace just inches from your one million pieces.

February 1, 2023 There are mushrooms popping up all over the forest floor. Research shows that it’s perfect for trees. Mushrooms are a communications connection. What they create beneath the surface of the planet is a source of lines that trees use to speak to each other. I’ve got many mushrooms because of a water break and the soil was dug into. It broke that line of communication. It makes me think about our methods of universally speaking as humans. Do we also have mushrooms of sorts that allow us to share communications without using our lips, eyes and thumbs texting? And if we did have that ability would we be greater at sharing real thoughts or remain concentrated on endlessly sharing bad news?

My hands are scarred by gashes that I can never explain. I told my followers on Facebook that it's a boy thing. Can we say that today? A boy thing. We've evolved into a generation where having an identity doesn't play by the rules of all out openness. Instead of a boy thing I should call it an all people thing. But can I say people? Yes we live on earth but there could be groups that don't identify themselves as people. I use hand lotion to keep from getting hangnails. Is that a girl thing? It's a people thing. No it's a thing.

The forest is about to get pummeled by a lengthy summer thunder maker. The roar in the sky. Nature is constantly changing. I'm reminded of the woman of homelessness. I asked her how she stays dry. Her reaction was "I keep walking. I know my steps will lead me back to the shelter." More than ever we are a lost generation with a roof and four walls to protect us from the rain and wind. I don't know how to live out there. What if this storm puts me on a walk through the rain to hopefully locate something dry? "No worries," The woman of homelessness said to me, "Nothing will wreck my day."