Trouble understanding lifetimes

helpers.rs

extern crate yaml_rust;

use std::fs::File;
use std::io;
use std::io::prelude::*;
use std::process; 
// NOTE: why self here, again?
// because `use` defaults from crate root, and yaml is beneath
// crate root

use self::yaml_rust::{YamlLoader, YamlEmitter, Yaml};
use self::yaml_rust::yaml;

// funky macro so you can use "{:?}" to print custom structs
#[derive(Debug)]
pub struct Config<'a> {
    dirs: Vec<&'a str>,
}

pub fn read_file(filename: &str) -> Result<String, io::Error> {
    let mut f = try!(File::open(filename));
    let mut s = String::new();
    try!(f.read_to_string(&mut s));
    Ok(s)
}


pub fn new_config<'a>(path: &str) -> Config<'a> {  

    let v: Vec<&'a str> = Vec::new();
    //let parsed: Vec<&'a yaml_rust::Yaml>;
    //let mut parsed: Vec<Yaml>;
    let mut v1;
    let conf; 


    match read_file(path) {
        Ok(s) => {
            let parsed = YamlLoader::load_from_str(&s).unwrap();
            let dirs = parsed[0]["dirs"].as_vec().unwrap(); 
            println!("---- dirs content: {:?}", dirs);
            v1 = Vec::new();
            for item in dirs {
                println!("---- item content: {:?}", item);
                match item.as_str() {
                    Some(x) => v1.push(x),
                    _ => println!("wtf")
                }
            }

            conf = Config{dirs: v1.clone()};
            return conf;
        }
        Err(error) => {
            println!("{:?}", error);
            process::exit(1);  // reading conf failed. Bail.
        }
    }

    //let conf: Config<'a> = Config{dirs: v};
    conf
}

Error from cargo build

src/helpers.rs:40:24: 40:30 error: `parsed` does not live long enough
src/helpers.rs:40             let dirs = parsed[0]["dirs"].as_vec().unwrap();