When a tree within the heart begins to wither, it's hard to see where the leaves are landing/ It's not hard to spot out the blotted out spaces you wouldn't want me to see/ I can't remember the last time I felt you breathe for me/ For when I have done nothing, you seem to only recall my selfish and eradicated deeds/ But now we're in the thick of it all and these trees are getting thinner and thinner, much like the ice you stand on/ And it seems without nourishment these walls could come crashing down instantaneously

My mind begins to turn and haven't you heard that the turning of a mind and the changing of times is a bad thing?/ Well let me enlighten you a bit here, you see when I was bit here, right here on my left forearm, something changed within me that day/ Something new, something unique, something different and strange that made me all, but too comfortable in my own skin/ I liked who I was, I liked who I was becoming and then out of nowhere I hit the ground running/ Running away from you while you were running away from me and I was avoiding you because I was running away from time and it was only mine to lose/ I see these kids. . . they give up on their passions and on their dreams and they started living the life that you wanted for them and for what?/ So that you can say, "Wow, now that's an outstanding young person fighting and striving in their community."/ You see all these kids they come to me. . . not understanding why the world just wont accept them for who they feel like they're supposed to be and I say, "Son, I couldn't tell you the first reason why you wouldn't be tolerated by your mother and father."/ They're telling me, "My mom kicked me out when I was just 15./ I got a job and quit school and made myself known as quite the opposite of pristine, I/ Popped pills and I drank my sorrows away, I hurt the people I once loved/ I cheated on my wife because I didn't know how to fix my broken marriage/ I started making excuses for why I was coming home late and I used food to beat the hard times, believe me I cleaned the whole damn plate/ I let people tell me who I was going to be and that it wasn't good enough for me to just be me." and I'm here to tell you that that was the biggest mistake you've ever made./

Nearly none of these things I am describing have happened to me and luckily I have only been marked by a few things that make my soul unclean/ But I'm sure they're happening to you, and to you, and to you, times 3/ Forget about what they say, disregard whatever they think, don't forget who you are just because they say you aren't/ And if I erased your mind completely could you take only one thing from me?/ My words.

These words are all that's left of my trees/ My forest has been desecrated and my foliage is no longer green/ My lush leaves have turned and there's no turning them back, for what was once a sea of living creatures is now a pitch of black/ My leaves have landed and it's hard to see where, but my words will live on forever winded in the air/ Keep your story flowing, don't let your leaves cease growing, don't let death be the end of who you're meant to be/ Make your mark on this world and leave an imprint on history, for regardless of what you have been told. . . You are lovely/ For the maker of all living things knows your heart insurmountably better than any human beings/ He knows the numbers of hairs on your head and his count is more accurate than the most powerful accurate microscopes/ Through his eyes. . . Through his eyes you are not the innocent little sapling that the world makes you out to be, but a mighty redwood that they can no longer ignore seeing.

So go and make yourselves known amongst the trees.