October 13, 2020
The things we do without knowing why we put so much energy into it. So many people have openly talked about loving the idea of knowing what our future holds. I shy away from such a feeling because if I knew what to expect I’d spend more time trying to change it. Like this forest that I live within. If I had known in 1992 what I see and experience today I’d be a completely different person. Rather than patiently wandering and wading through the challenges and changes a collection of trees endures daily, the mission would’ve been to hit Home Depot and Lowes and replenish the land with magazine cover limbs and leaves. The choice wasn’t made to follow that game. What I heard in my heart 28 years ago was to be present. To learn from the curves of a universal world then try to teach the activation to a future reader. On this podcast episode we put the energy of this forest into a frame of mind. A thought. And how investing in a thought can truly be the only answer required during their Covid days of assumption. This forest has served as my source of energy. From the roots inside the soil to being a writer on the outside, the constantly changing atmosphere evolves into words on a page. It’s the very forest my wife and I shared our wedding vows in. No day passes that I still don’t see how we gathered on a 102 degree day. What happened after that became a thought turned into a lifelong journey. The land was becoming bare and those living near the multiple trees wanted to clear. It was time to work closely with everybody’s ideas and reasons behind their thoughts and patterns. By 1997 just over seventeen hundred seedlings had been placed on the map. The wounded layer of land was trusted to bring forward something so incredibly invisible that I could never locate the right thoughts to share with anyone willing to listen. When time put me in the trees there were no deer, hawks, owls, snakes and other furry or fuzzy creatures. Today it’s an incredibly different story. Because I invested in a thought. Which a lot of us have been given during these shutdown moments. Thoughts come at us like water raging down a mountain stream. How many of your thoughts make it to the roots of others needing something to drink? Thoughts inspire and influence our personal need to giving. In doing so it’s completely natural to think of it as relinquishing. Bye bye had a good time but you’ve got to go. What if the story changed? Instead of tossing out, we look at the moment as being a continuation with connection. A community of strength and rejuvenation. What does that have to do with a forest that faced its final seasons in the 1990’s? That thought turned into a choice was never meant for me but rather tomorrows travelers. I walk several miles inside the greenways every weekend knowing someone’s thoughts made the path possible. I’m not inviting you to become a tree hugger and start replenishing your backyard. I used the forest as an example. To stop hoarding what you think and make a path for a generation you may never meet. Live beyond the present by investing in a thought. Let it grow. Let it become the existence of reason. Then pull the camera lens back and write to the future readers about the changing seasons. Your thoughts are meant to be present and possible. Believe in them and tomorrows readers will be grateful for the chance you took.