I love writing inside a forest. It could be connected to my early years in Montana. I openly admit to being a tree hugger. It could also be associated with my Native American spiritual beliefs that say trees and rocks are the greatest storytellers on the planet. On this podcast I step back to August 1, 2019 and read about so many beautiful things that have happened inside this forest located in south Charlotte, North Carolina. Once free from the page I looked up and took note of the very forest written about as it appears in my present place of "Now" Very dark clouds, hard rain, an early morning Fall fog. But I don't feel the urge to race out into the trees with my writing instrument and paper. I'm not the only one that does this. Rather than embrace the rains caused by personal storms we walk away. Sure I could say I don't want to get wet. It looks to be a cold day in Carolina. Why would I want to take a chance on getting sick? Because it seems like the only thing we talk about or post on social media any more are the great days. The best smiles. The moments we've accepted. Nobody wants to be a Debbie Downer with their changes and challenges and yet on the opposite end of this day could be something we were designed to learn today. When it happens we'll post it in seconds. But it's not the full story. Readers and people standing next to you only got part of it. My father served our nation in World War II. In our forty five plus years together he spoke of two things about his days on the battle grounds. The day he went in and the day he got out. I never once heard my father talk about the entire story. Which makes me wonder about how much of our true selves have fallen into the carved out channels and tunnels to never be heard because even though it might not be pretty and smell like roses... It's just something we've set aside with hopes of forever forgetting.

Oh you know how we are. Those people that live by the power of a written word. I've always been connected to the book. I just didn't make it as public as I do today. It became my calling to stop hiding. My preacher friends or those extremely close to the message warned me of the changes and how those around us will have opinion. On this podcast I step through that learning hoop by opening a conversation based not on religion but rather spirituality. I love Jim Carey's quote, "I'm a Jesus freak. I'm Buddhist. I'm Hindu. I'm everything!" The quote I laid into the veins of a living tree this past summer paints the image of my journey as being a spiritual man that doesn't where religion on his sleeve. Try that line out with the Sunday teachers. You know whats funny? The thought is supported. I expected friction. I was letting down the calling. Nope not really. Turning your gifts of life into a conversation that can help free someone from depression is your community. You don't know it all but you do know something. The joy you feel in your walk and way through creating things is actually a brilliant word to be heard. Don't hide your love for what you do. Being a cat lover helps heal others. Running at five in the morning will bring peace to those that would like to do it better. Your language on the street is yours to keep. Grow forward and outward. Remove the labels from your sleeves.

There are multiple things they don't prepare us for in high school or college. One of them being the physical act of watching your parents fade. Making it even more difficult is being two thousand miles from the soil that raised your ambitions and dreams. Therefore you rely on family members to help bring peace to all that is changing. I find it difficult to locate the right words to say. I'm a writer. It should could easy right? Through several layers and painful failures I've learned the goal everyday is to do nothing more than make room for my sister the caretaker, To listen. Make no decisions to correct and or attempt to help lead. Just listen. She doesn't want to hear about God. Wants nothing to do with the valley floors shaped everyday on my journey. The mission is to just listen. Having patience with those who are taking care of those fading. On this podcast we talk about her side while attempting to explain this side. Care Givers are angels. They've answered the command and calling. Then the higher source of energy says, "Your part in this process of fading is to be the structure that holds up those face first in the struggle. You'll hear things and experience emotions that have never been laid out before. Just be there. Let them know they've got support. No matter what time of day the phone rings or the text message chimes. That's your part in the fade." The circle of life and all it's chapters. Don't fight the journey. Listen...

I am a poet. I write in a lot of forests. Its because I believe trees are the storytellers not the human. Pretty weird thinking right? We're all on our own journey. How you get from each corner is determined by how much energy you place in a reason. On this podcast the collections of words placed on a giving tree's gift to those who enjoy writing, I'm going through the methods of calm madness on pack up day at the camp ground. Documenting what it's like to hold everything just experienced inside this forest and now you've got to get back to a world of business and lifestyle survival. Moving through the moments we invite while grasping onto the circumstances we'd rather remain free of. Dealing with reality. Nobody wants that! Nobody wants change either. Yet we find ourselves always in a place of packing up to move on. You might have the same career as ten years ago but your emotional baggage isn't the same. We change more than just everyday. We evolve every hour. Then we pack up and move forward. I think the reason why we eat too much is based on trying to create mile markers. Every morning at 4:00 I question my memory. What did you have for lunch yesterday? What do you remember watching on television last night. Who did you send text messages to? Mental exercising. Because today and every day is pack up day. What are carrying forward with you?

A wealthy businessman once said to me "You cannot be successful without conflict." This taught me to walk into every meeting expecting to make disconnections. The true winners are those that make their way back to a solid foundation of building tomorrow before it gets here. Behind closed doors we all admit to having good and bad days, struggles and far too many loses then victories. In front of the world the cast image is that of bright smiles, solid handshakes and a conversation that truly has nothing to do with reality. I'm a people watcher. I study body language. The best form of entertainment is sitting back at the airport, Starbucks or some place very public and watch how people fake their way through the conversation. Or! Sitting at a red light. Look around you at those using a Blue Tooth to talk on the phone. Body language is everything and it almost never matches the words slipping from your lips. There are many conversations I'd love to go back to patch up. I live my life by being present in the "Now" that's not fair to the purpose of growth. Rebuild your bad conversations this moment forward. Retie the broken strings with someone you've lost or need to reconnect with. This moment forward. The weight of an hour ago still has somewhat of a voice but what was said three years or twenty ago really means nothing. Living life in forward motion is a choice. There's always an open door. If you see it closed then you decided it to be.

I write in a forest. There's an energy there I can't seem to explain. I go there to listen. I finally started paying attention in 2015. The Billy Graham Library in Charlotte. The journey didn't end there. After a year of scribbling junk into the trunk of a tree now paper... I realized something was moving through me. I heard a calling. Because I write in a forest you see plenty of things on the cluttered floor. Pine needles and leaves. Fallen branches and other people's writing instruments. That's how careless or uncaring we are. I endlessly locate pens on the surface of this planets skin. With no question I pick them up and use them. Somebody must have left it there for a poet right? On this podcast we grow within the body of my most recent pen discovery. It was cracked and yet so useful. Put ink it and let it do it's job. Then from out of nowhere I scratched into the page, "Put ink it and let it do it's job like the way of the world of business." Ouch. When you look in the mirror whose eyes do you see? You give so much of yourself to the people that write your paycheck, have you taken on their image? Married people do! Eventually you begin to look like each other. You can't help but think of the writing instrument found on the forest floor. We're cracked and still able to write. Just put ink in it and let it do it's job." No matter how many times you're bothered the moment you walk into your place of business, you perform. Then one day you'll become 50 plus and have no paper trail as to how you got that far so fast. You always had ink inside your system of delivery. You performed. Is that really how you want to give your life away? When was the last time you found a birds feather floating freely on a street corner or front yard? Were you grateful for the connection? Feathers always seem so peaceful as they float within the wind. Your life is a rock compared to it. Awareness clears the path. Mindfully being present becomes what you can control. Your next decision make it about your ink well. Let your mind body and soul be filled with your vision. If every song on the radio is about the musicians life. Why did they get to live and you chose to walk ahead. Locate the lyrics of a new song. It starts with a broken writing instrument found on a forest floor.

One of the most abused words set free to roam the planet is Trust. Too many times it's shoved out there to help calm those in question or just seeking truer shapes of leadership without having to dive into a vat of worry or fear. Politicians and preachers thrust trust onto our daily plates and because they said it we are required to participate with the presentation. The moment a business leader uses the word Trust I begin to tune out. Here comes the sales pitch! On this podcast we get a little preachy but not in the way of catapulting the word Trust over walls or through mountains. Within my journals these words appeared, "When I feel a spiritual connection the last thing I reach for is trust." God is unconditional. Trust in 2019 is a 50/50 shot at winning or losing. We are trained to trust only to be injured in the end. You don't get the energy or time back. You made the effort to trust with no return on your investment. When you remind yourself that God is unconditional there's never a question of trust. It's unconditional.

Hey it’s Arroe. I’m a Poet. One that just happens to write in a forest.
In 2015 I stepped into a very special collection of trees at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, NC
While there. I did nothing but write. But they weren’t my words. They were The Lyrics From Billy’s Forest.
Nearly two years later God spoke to my heart. It was time to grow beyond the library, to write within other collections of trees. Mainly my forest in South Charlotte NC.
In every place I’ve written the spirit of Billy’s Lyrics vibrate the purpose and plan God put into play.
I never know what I’m going to write about when I enter these forest. Which gives us plenty of time in the end to talk about it.
These are not my words. These are the lyrics from Billy’s forest.
Today we jump into the subject of what we do to fit in. I begin it by asking about how Jesus fit in. He didn't. He wasn't a shape shifter but a life
changer. Within our daily walks and decisions decided we too are given the opportunity to make a choice. How will we fit in? Is that your present
need? What serves your required steps of acceptance? Engagement by way of helping others is growth. Utilizing the strength of what's been
experienced so that pieces can actually become peace filled. Each of us spend a lot of time trying to fit in. Our feelings are easily injured. Our
dreams are set aside. Our next decision is based on how shape has shifted. What if that craving to want to belong was given a new stream
to flow through? Instead of fitting into the valley floor your decision was to help change something that's growing with you. It's a choice without
having to lose your identity.

I'm far from being the only one that asks this question and we'll probably spend the next 50 billion years still trying to locate the answer. What wakes us up in the middle of the night? On this podcast we talk about a 1:50 am stroll through the forest to do nothing but write. A forest is a very scary place to be alone. You truly can't see what's watching you. Will you be tripped by unseen vines? Snakes, owls, raccoons! Oh my! I've never kept my love for trees a secret. Native American's see them as great storytellers. A tree is extremely willing to sacrifice its life so that you have a place to write. And in return what are we sharing? The very late night extremely early morning walk without a path didn't come with a payoff. Just an open view as to how other things live around humans. How it survives without cable television, prepackaged foods, free music downloads and endless amounts of water. I think the one thing that stands out most about the words put down on paper is the writers need to know why had been woken. In his own handwriting style he asks "God was it you?" Big question with no answer. Laughing it off he blamed his lack of hearing on how noisy a forest is until just before sunrise. Writing and or being creative outside your normal comforts helps to clear the mind body and soul of habits shaped by mundane everyday-isms. When something feels out of the ordinary. Take the call. Be present in your now. Mindful of how getting knocked off the path builds inner strength by way of trusting the moment.

In Paul Stanley's new book Backstage Pass he brings up the differences between having a dream and holding onto a fantasy. One is real while the other keeps generating mental images of something you're probably not going to hold. Being part of a dream means you accept the pitfalls that go with the itty bitty victories. Whereas a fantasy keeps the door open for false actions and reactions that are materialized to help calm the fears connected to failure. I don't have a relationship with fantasy. The day I met actor Bradley Cooper was a dream come true. I didn't sit back and think of the potential of there being a meeting. Everyday I worked hard at what I was doing that eventually led to that door being open. I've never fantasized my podcast network would be as big as Marc Maron or Conan O'Brein. The dream was to be exactly what podcasting is... A niche. Hitting one million was a hell of a journey and well worth the tests and struggles. In your own everyday place on the planet learn to become aware of what having a dream is about versus the fantasy. Too often we see the musicians, actors, acrobatics and all others on America's Got Talent fantasizing of winning. What are they hoping to achieve? That one million dollar check and a date in Vegas? What happens when it's over? Do they try for American Idol of NBC's The Voice. Fantasies aren't real. Invest in making your dreams come true. Keep them real and extremely close. Protect what you're being called to accomplish. Don't let the fantasy of success be the apple you bite into and inside sits a worm. A true dreamer would eat that worm and shout out, "Give me more!"