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Hey, thanks for being a part
of the conversation. This is Forest Stories.

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I am the Poet in the Forest, a children's series that I pinned

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out in the nineteen nineties. Now, none of it would be possible if

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it wasn't for this forest right here
in South Charlotte, North Carolina. I

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talk about it so much that I
thought maybe it's time that you get to

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know what has inspired me for thirty
years. Thanks for being a part of

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the conversation. We've spent the first
few chapters talking about the little human things

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that happen inside this forest, from
the statues to the peace of the former

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county Courthouse in Mecklenburg County, to
the trees, Larry Tree, the headless

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statues. We've talked so much about
that. But the one thing that a

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lot of people don't understand is the
spiritual connection to this collection of trees.

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The birds. The birds are so
important to the story. We'll talk about

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the hawks and the owls. And
the reason why we'll talk about them is

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because they don't leave my side,
there with me early in the morning,

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they're there with me late at night, especially the fun loving hawk with the

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way that it loves to be three
or four feet from me, just screeching

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a way like it's preaching the word, telling me what the real story is

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behind the spirit of this forest.
The two owls joined me out on the

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deck the night that we lost my
Chinese crested Sammy. I was so distraught

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that I just needed to be with
the forest. So I raced outside to

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the deck twenty three feet above the
forest floor, and right there, on

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one limb, there were two owls, and the owls looked at me.

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They didn't have to say anything,
their eyes as bright as the sunshine,

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and yet it was late at night. They talked to me in a way

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of saying, we gotcha, We
gotcha what you're going through. A lot

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of people do, but they don't
turn and look at the natural world and

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the spirit of it. But we're
here with you. This morning, while

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Jazzy and I were taking a walk
through the forest, and we do that

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every day. We were in the
forest and to heron heron usually see them

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lakeside, to heron in the sky, dove down at us. Did I

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run? Did I hide? Was
I in fear? No? No,

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because I was there to receive.
So I go back in and I study

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what these animals mean through animals speak
and animal spirituality, where are they at

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on the totem? And you learn
about how important the heron is, how

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you are to take an opportunity and
learn from it. You may not agree

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with the opportunity, but you learn
from the opportunity. So these animals,

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these birds that fly in the sky
high above this beautiful forest in South Charlotte,

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they're constantly sharing their word, and
in doing so, you pick up

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your own heart and you begin to
walk in a way that says, I

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am embracing this moment of now,
and it's thanks to these birds. How

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about the rin I think that's what
it is. A wren has joined us

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on the front porch that overlooks this
beautiful forest. I thought it was an

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owl at first, but it's not
growing. And then I thought, maybe

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it's a bat that visits us every
single night. It sleeps on this porch

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every night, but it doesn't sleep
upside down. So the more and more

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I dug, the more and more
I was educating myself thanks to this forest

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and the spirituality about it, it
has to be a wren. Its personality

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is a wren and what it means
to the mind, body, and soul

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is a journey of being aware and
being present in your place of now.

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The win doesn't travel too far.
It stays in areas where it knows it

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can help protect and it will protect
itself the birds of this beautiful forest in

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South Charlotte, North Carolina. Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation.