The sound of rain in the forest this morning. Which is odd to my heart because most of the time I'm listening to rain through an app on the smartphone. We use the sound to sleep. To see it rain today is looked upon as nature washing away the summer's graffiti. The passing of time requires us to accept the rain. For all things cannot live beyond their unspoken lifetime. A whisper from Heaven "There shall be peace. For in this moment of now your roots will gather the energy while the sun waits to warm your hearty soil."

Mentally thinking and reacting we get lost in our own worlds. Getting to a place of peace is a difficult journey because everything's stacking up. In martial arts we were students of all things. Learning how to love all living things means you respect the soil we share with trees. Adding living plants to your lifestyle invites hope and trust. Mindfully we can all grow forward.

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?