A Burnt Forest…
This week I have been in Cairns at the Tropical Innovation Festival. It was a gathering of business founders, entrepreneurs and venture capitalist humans with very large brains and VERY deep pockets. I didn’t know what to expect when I got accepted to attend but it was a wonderful event. I learnt a lot, was exposed to a world I knew very little about, heard pitches from super rad free thinkers and thrown out of my comfort zone, getting to know new, lovely people. It truly was a wonderful experience I am grateful to Bundaberg Business HQ for supporting. I found some sweet trails, relaxed a bit and really appreciate this experience I was fortunate enough to attend.
Whilst there, I met a poet named Joel McKerrow. He was such an energetic, sweet guy who I liken to the Aussie IN-Q. At one of the sessions, he encouraged us to write, for three minutes and not stop. I truly do love writing but I was surprised what came out. Below is a tidied, longer version of my initial draft. A little different from my usual blog content I know but I hope you enjoy. Until next time, Consistency + Commitment, Mat.
A burnt forest.
Empty, barely a shell of what once was. Burnt to the ground. Smoldering, putrid, cracked open and scorched. Blackened, charred and baron. A vast expanse of nothingness. No life remains on the surface only buried deep beneath. An eerie stillness. Piercing quietness. A silence so loud it almost hurts. Restless discomfort. A season?
A question resounds, ‘What happened?’. Once a green, beautiful, lush landscape that grew and grew into something truly memorable. Wild even. Full of life, experience and wonder. Then, a match was lit. A spark ignited and quickly, in the blink of an eye, wildfire ripped through. How did something so sudden incite? So dramatic, even cinematic. Human intervention or a brutal process of the seasons? A letting go. Something that was once so grand, so invitingly luring, now a shell of what once was. So many questions with little to no answers. A process of age and time perhaps?
However. Although the hollowness and stripping away seemed so swift, restoration is possible. Nature is a true miracle. Over time, new buds and vibrant shades of green appear. They pierce the darkness. One at a time poking a hole through the shroud of black. Slowly but surely life returns and is even more stupendous than before! More grand than we could have ever imagined. Time is all we can pray for. This is all we can hope for. Cycle. Pain. Process. Restoration.