Monthly Archive for July, 2010

Dear SuperForest,

I have been doing a lot of thinking recently. About a month ago I began feeling so lost and confused. I started asking myself, “Why am I doing this? What is the reason I started?” So I decided to take time away from SuperForest and my personal project, The Sun Shines On, for as long as felt I needed to. I needed space. I needed to let myself breathe. I then began going back to my roots. I started rereading posts I had written in the past, starting with everything from beginning of The Sun Shines On forward. I was on a quest. A quest to find my inspiration. One of my writers on The Sun Shines On actually wrote about inspiration today. This post came right on the tail end of me finding me again. Needless to say it was perfect! What first inspired me to decide to go down this path of writing and sharing? What just was it? Why was I feeling like I had lost it? Questions, even now, I am still tangling with. With everyday I feel more and more confident of where I was and where I am now are more aligned once again. It is so easy to lose sight of where you are on your own path. You can move forward so fast you forget to look around once and awhile to make sure you are on the same road. I had lost sight of what was really important.

Fun, LoVE, Me, and You.

The first two of those I’ll come back to later. Me & you, though, I want to tackle now.

Me. Me comes from the origins of SuperForest, aka SuperForester Jackson. When Jackson first stepped onto the road of SuperForest he had one goal in mind: share all things that inspired HIM to smile, laugh, cry, stare in awe, and jump for joy. At least that is what I have inferred from the early SuperForest posts. That simple goal is what I, and all SuperForesters, have taken upon ourselves. If I am made happy by something chances are it will make at least one other person happy by me sharing it, and that makes everything I do worth it.

You. Since I began writing (blogging) I have always felt it essential to talk to YOU. Thinking about this in the past weeks I realised the origin of this idea, Stephen King. If you have ever read his books you will notice he will address his readers as “Constant Reader.” What I think when I read it is, “He is talking to me!” I have since adopted that for myself. I know everyday I speak via my writing to many wonderful individuals, but between you and me, I am really only talking to you. The words I write are only for you. They’re our own little secret. I was reminded of this by SuperForester Carla’s post “Your Secret.” The personal feel gives me goosebumps, and never fails to make me smile as I write my secrets just for you. That is why YOU are important to me. Thank you Carla for helping me find this again.

Fun & LoVE. First fUn! Sadly, I feel this is what I had lost the most of. In fact, I only just came to terms with this. Moments before writing this I went AHA! Fun means so much to me. Let me define it for you.

Mathew’s definition of fun:

Fun is everything incredible, bold, scary, BREATHtaking, jittery, exciting, nervous, unsure, lost, cReAtiVe, Confident, NOISY, perfect, ImpErfect, siLLy, insane, calm, cheerful :), and heartwarming <3. Fun is taking that chance no one else will. Fun is saying, “Ah! Screw it!” Fun is that spontaneous feeling that leads you to doing the unthinkable. Fun is what leads us to bursts of unstoppable laughter. Fun, for all intents and purposes, is simply fun.

FUN! is something I have seriously been lacking. The worst part of that is that FuN is key. We at SuperForest, writers and readers alike, are here to have fun, to explore things others haven’t, to smile, to think, to create, to make the world our own. We are the kindergardeners and SuperForest is our playground. When fun is to be had there is nothing to fear. Recently I have been thinking about whether or not my posts are interesting enough or good enough. I would use the terrible vice of the number of comments to rate myself. What I recently discovered, and this is truly fun, is that it doesn’t matter! None of it! None of it as long as I have fun. As long as I discovered something new for myself and shared that with you, and the whole dang process was fun for ME! There is no limit to what we can do here at SuperForest. It is our magical creativity centre, and how fortunate and proud I am to be part of it. Here, I can do no wrong because I am having fun.

As we get older we lose our ability to use our minds to create an universe of our own. We forget to create everyday. All too often we just “get through the day.” I recently watched a film about Peter Pan, Hook, and let me tell you Pan is a hero of mine. And so is Willy Wonka now that I think about it. Those two guys had it right. Have fun and create and imagine. Interestingly enough my real life hero, who embodies so many of the ideas in his work, played Peter Pan in that movie I watched, Robin Williams. So as I grow older I want to find my childhood ability to create worlds and universes. To once again play, and not be afraid of it. And what better place to do this than on SuperForest, our own magical kingdom? Time for me to bring back fun into what I do.

LoVE. LoVE is the glue behind all of this. It is the one thing I haven’t lost. Instead I have discovered how to use it better. Love allows me to keep this whole process together, it keeps me going. My love for SuperForest, my love for humanity, my love for my family, my love for my friends, and all the love I get in return. Love is the fuel, sealant, and paperweight. Isn’t that magical? I sure think so.

All four of those rediscovered things have hit me in the past few weeks as I have wrestled with myself. So where does this leave me? Excited! I am not worried about what I share, but instead how much fun it is for me to create it, find it, write it, and share it! I have discontinued the Sunday Sunshine posts in search of something fresher, greener, and newer. I need more tools then it allowed me. Maybe someday a newer, funner version of it will come back. But who knows? All I can promise is we’ll find out together on this journey. I can also promise this won’t be the last hiccup on the journey either, many more are to come, for you and me. I and you and we can deal with each and every one of them, and we’ll have Fun doing it.

Thank you. You have no idea how much you have helped me find more of who I am. I am so honoured to be sharing this continuous learning process with you.

See you at the next pit stop down the road. I have a feeling it will be more fun than McDonald’s Playland (remember how great those were to play in? Ah! The plastic ball pools!!). I can’t wait!

Peace, love, life, & FUN,

Mathew

The following is a clip from the movie Hook. It is one of my favourite scenes, and embodies so much of what I talked about. It is about seven minutes long, but so worth it. Enjoy the fun!