Hey, we're trying something new a podcast called Thanks for being a part of
the conversation. A part of the conversation that you don't get to fall witness
too is my love for this forest in South Charlotte, North Carolina. In
the nineteen nineties, I was the poet in the Forest. It was a
children's series that I pinned out. None of it would be possible if it
wasn't for this force where I presently stand right here in Charlotte. I talk
about it and write about it so much that I thought it was time that
you get to be a part of what has been inspiring me since nineteen ninety
two. Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation. Twenty three
feet above this beautiful forest the deck, I can see and I can hear
so much, and I've written so much while being on the deck. I'm
standing within the elephant ears right now, and I've got flowers. Of course,
I've been all over the web searching to find out do elephant ears flower?
Or is this just somebody invading the space inside this pot and they show
the flowers. But to be twenty three feet above this forest floor, overlooking
the trees, the long, tall grass. With the glow of the sun,
you can see the spider's web. And I love spiders, I do.
And the reason why is because in Native American spirituality, spiders actually they
build their webs upward to the Great Creator, and it's a very positive message.
And if you truly look beyond your fear of spiders, you'll realize how
many insects are taken away because the spider is just trying to help keep the
forest clear. But this flower on an elephant ear is just amazing. And
these leaves, yeah, they soak up a lot of sun, but they
provide a lot of shade for the many, many, many different plants that
are on the deck twenty three feet above. And now as I walk around,
it looks like there's a little wooly worm. It's not a little bit
too early for the wooly worms to be out. This was kind of fuzzy.
It makes me wonder what winter is going to be like, because on
this day, this particular August day, it's like sixty eight degrees twenty three
feet above this forest floor, it feels like fall is starting to arrive.
If you could see the lay of the land, you would see the long,
tall grass. But you would also see how the water has raced down
the hill. And we've talked about that ninety five foot drop, but we've
not been on the right side of the house. A different kind of walk
down the hill. But from twenty three feet above, I can see the
bigger stream. All the plants that are up here. They watch on the
coolest of rainy days in the South as that stream swells. I've had the
professionals come. I've had them look at the stream. I'm going I think
it's going to flood one day and it's going to wipe out everything. But
the professionals have sat down with me and said, don't. Nature is taking
care of itself and it has nothing to do with reaching over the banks that
it has created. Don't pick up the fallen trees, because I believe the
fallen trees are food for the europe It's food for other insects. Although it
may look ugly to those that have home depot and low style lawns, being
twenty three feet above the ground, it's a forest. It's not man made.
It's nature made. The gum trees, oh my god, they must
be fifty feet tall. So many people have said you've got to get rid
of the gum trees. They're very bad trees. They steal from the nutrients.
And yet at one point in time in history, if you go back
and read about the gum tree, the people in the Orient would actually take
the gum from these trees and chew want it before we had the gum that
we have today. I love my gum trees. They're very tall, twenty
three feet above the forest floor. Thank you so much for being a part
of the conversation.