The Lyrics From Billys Forest Chapter 207

June 30 2020
Although I’ve always had a tight relationship with my forest in South Charlotte, North Carolina, it hasn’t always been giving peace and love a chance. I was horribly lost during those early years from 1992 to 97. Nature was struggling with the opportunity to catch up. Acid rain and other atmospheric materials were weakening the limbs and roots. A once vibrant collection of trees was thinning too quickly. That caused erosion. The soil wasn’t protected by the tall stick figures. I would sit for hours in this forest daily writing. Literally listening for the wind share something in the way of protecting its tree history. Like most, I did the Lowes and Home Depot thing of trying to replenish the missing trees with what I call candy coated magazine soil fixtures. They weren’t surviving. November 1997. Seventeen hundred naturally grown North Carolina tree seedlings began a journey that has invited peace and love back into the poetry. Learning to love all living things. During those bleak moments of possibly facing cleared land, I was able to take incredible notes of how everything was reacting. From the tall grasses to the tiny creek to the turtles, snakes and other living things. I wrote about everything. I studied how the land was reaching outward and it was my goal and mission to read every book that would help me save this little piece of daily sharing. Learning to love all living things taught me to include even the tiniest pebbles used to slow erosion. To hold water for the base of the trees to giving a lizard a place of warmth on a sunny day. Learning to love all living things. While writing in the forest on June 13, 2020 I was given a different thought. All of these beautiful animals have come to this one place to help complete the circle. The seasons so incredibly peace filled. But something was still missing. The message that’s been growing for years. Replenishing a forest doesn’t happen overnight. It involves a lot of communication. The one thing missing from this forest? People. Learning to love all living things. In a day and age of life’s everyday forest constantly getting hit by the atmosphere and all it brings. People are no different than a tree. It’s time to study the soil. It’s time to get to know the flow of energy. It’s time to take notes about preserving what we already have by introducing peace and love through communication. Learning to love all living things. Not just what you like. All living things. Knowing about your community not just driving through it. Planting new ideas that are natural and not from a candy coated magazine page. Equally loving creates peace.