A forest isn't the only object of change during the evolution of seasons. We can learn a lot from how leaves come into being then are set free. How do we turn it into lessons for us to grow with? Depends on how you act when everything once green begins to fall. Is the glass half full or empty?

Does a tree that which scrapes the sky find its place in history knowing it's no longer as tall as it used to be? This forest at McDowell park doesn't look like it did 37 years ago. An area once overgrown is no amazingly clear. In our own lives, those overgrown places that consumed a majority of your life are just as clear as this forest. What are you doing with the space? Are you shrinking? Prevent it from being by expanding. If you believe in your heart that your chapters are not growing. Expand. Or you'll shrink.

When nature calls. Some people instantly associate that with having to use the bathroom. Nature is calling you at all times. To share with you newer ways to grow forward and outward. When you listen to nature it helps you prepare for the always churning unexpected changes in life. Nobody predicted the pandemic and the outcome of how we are still facing it over the two year mark. Nobody predicted how brutal Russia has been on the very innocent Ukraine. Both have made me very aware of the what if's in life. I watch nature. I learn about survival and the physical act of death and rebirth. This forest in south Charlotte, NC is a brilliant teacher in the way that it provides me with not just plants but animals that get close enough to get my attention inside an extremely busy world. My mother used to tell us to save it for a rainy day. These days many people don't want that to be their walking path. They've adopted the idea of you only live once. When nature calls. Are you listening? Are you watching? In 24 months we've truly found out the hard way on how real uncertainty is. Now it feels like something new takes place every ten minutes. The lessons of survival are sitting right there in front of you. Learn from nature.

I'm not sure it was supposed to be this way. Jazzie and I stood three feet away from the deer this new morning. They weren't bothered by our presence. Jazzie has been trained to stop then sit. The mission is to let the deer pass. It's their forest and we are only the visitors. I remember when a doe charged at Jazzie because she was with a fawn. Sitting still Jazzie looked up at me as if to be asking, "What did I do wrong? I'm a good girl!" She must think they are weird looking dogs with trees growing on top of their heads. If they are trees where are the leaves? The lesson taken is based on our personal walks through each unwritten day. We can waste a lot of energy trying to shape what's already been laid out or we can see the atmosphere without leaving the altitude. If you begin to grow trees on top of your head, consider yourself part of nature.

Taking note of the white pine in the forest. Its long needles a shade of yellow. I remember planting the pine as a seedling. Now it's trunk is well rounded with age. I love walking through areas where the white pine has blanketed the forest floor with its needles. It's a stroll through rebirth. So many don't see that as an answer to current struggles. The daily goals should find strength in understanding the journey of relinquishing and rebirthing. Over the past two years we've been flattened by the pandemic. If we were the white pine our needles wouldn't be of many because we've pushed ourselves away from the greater story. When we want nothing to do with something we push it away. Out of sight of mind. But the pandemic remains. BA.2 is the newest shutting down nations. Find your inner leadership and start facing the storms. To relinquish your needles doesn't mean the end. Feed your roots so that next season you'll have amazing needles ready for the awaiting soil. You've got to stop pushing away and start learning from. Your answers are around you. Look for them in nature.

Inspired by a once tall tree in the forest whose limbs created what looked to be the human cross. After the tree had fallen to feed the forest floor a cedar tree took root inside the core of the once tall trees trunk. A very strong place for energy. To continue in the same exact place of another tree. Those places where you know it's the right place. Where does your energy arrive from? The outside self of the inner roots of thoughts becoming actuality?

I could spend hours studying the effects of water and wind. How a one time sheet of glass glamorously paints the portrait of fall colors then swiftly evolves into a series of ripples by a restless wind. It's as if Mother Nature has sent out a message of her portraits being for a limited time. As people we endlessly send out signals. Body language! What our body is performer may not be what it's physically projecting. What is seen from afar versus what is truly heard are two different shapes of communication. Body language to a receiver is solely based on assumption. Because your body is saying this doesn't mean that's the vocal message. I've learned to work with the wind. To mess up the calm and give those watching waves of new beginnings. I see myself in two different places, on Undercover Boss and on Tik Tok. Camera's are always watching. No step is taken without body language. What is your body saying to other people? The worse part about it is how it's not what others are reading.

We are trained as children to always look forward. Yet where do most people get attacked? You see the drama on the movie theater screen! You read about it in the newspaper. Through an everyday world we concentrate so much on everything we see that we aren't leaving enough room to learn about what's hiding. Writing in my forest this past October I took note of everything behind the limbs and leaves. Looking through the vines and long tall grass. I brag about being able to listen beyond sound. I challenged myself to do the same with sight. And what I got was a different angle of the rising sun. It came to me on a walk this morning. The first day of March 2022. We trust our backs more than our fronts. We rarely if ever turn around. While in the studio this morning I couldn't remember what's displayed on the wall behind me. I can see this beautiful forest outside the studio windows. I can see my brother and mother's ashes to my left and an acrylic painting I brought to life nearly thirty years ago. But I couldn't identify what's behind me. I took the thought for a test drive during my daily midmorning walk with my dog. My focus was 100% on what was in front of me. I never turned around to see what was moving behind me. That's when I chose to believe that we trust our backs more than our fronts. If we didn't trust it we'd turn around! Being aware of the present means knowing where you are. I spent some time with former CIA agent Ric Padro yesterday. We spoke very deeply about how disconnected people are in the places they stand and walk. Now imagine being in Ukraine where everything's changed. You don't know where the enemy is. Ukrainian's don't know where they're sleeping tonight. Survival means knowing your surroundings. The way you think and participate with conversation plays a huge role in how you're being received and or pushed away. Try driving a car without a rearview mirror. Why not your everyday life and step? By the way. Behind me inside this studio are my martial arts belts from white to 3rd degree. Why couldn't I remember that? We trust our back more than our front. Make the move to change that plan.

Studying the path of a tree leaf. How it does more than collect water for the roots. It also provides shade for the truck and after they fall in October they become food for the soil. The continuation. We all have them but most are sharing the story. My mother faced a lot of challenges but never appeared stressed out or beat up. I'd ask her about her story. The reply was always, "I don't remember." This is why I daily write. I may not remember certain areas of my 60 years on this planet but through writing there's a continuation. In all things I've done it's been written about as well as studied. Nothing just happens. What is your continuation? How will you grow forward? It starts with know where you came from?

I write in a forest. I go to listen. What started at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte has evolved into a lifelong journey. Something was moving through me. I’ve heard a calling. These aren’t my words. These are the lyrics from Billy’s forest.