1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:03,399 Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation. This is for stories. 2 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,280 I'm the Poet in the Forest, a children's series that I pinned out 3 00:00:07,280 --> 00:00:10,240 in the nineteen nineties. Now, none of it would be possible if it 4 00:00:10,279 --> 00:00:13,679 wasn't for this forest right here in South Charlotte, North Carolina. I talk 5 00:00:13,759 --> 00:00:17,800 about it so much that I thought maybe it's time that you get to know 6 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:23,719 what has inspired me for thirty years. Thanks for being a part of the 7 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:29,359 conversation. Welcome back to the forest. July eleventh, nineteen ninety three. 8 00:00:29,719 --> 00:00:34,359 This place that I stand, the meadow here in the forest, really close 9 00:00:34,399 --> 00:00:38,719 to the slow paced stream moving toward the lake. This is where we shared 10 00:00:38,719 --> 00:00:45,240 our wedding vows, where we didn't promise anything, we guaranteed it. My 11 00:00:45,320 --> 00:00:50,520 best man was Chris Beck, my wife's maid of honor, our daughter Jenny, 12 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:56,000 and we invited about forty or fifty people. Most of them were radio 13 00:00:56,039 --> 00:01:00,000 people because I was doing industrial radio at the time, and the rest were 14 00:01:00,039 --> 00:01:03,319 family and friends, friends that had traveled several miles, some from California. 15 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:08,680 But in this place where I presently stand, the wedding area, I remember 16 00:01:08,760 --> 00:01:14,840 Lee sharing her personally written vows, and it was so funny because it was 17 00:01:14,959 --> 00:01:18,879 very difficult for her to even get into those vows. That her heart was 18 00:01:18,959 --> 00:01:22,920 touched by the moment of so much love from anything and everything that was around 19 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:27,280 us. It was and we laugh about it even today. Thirty two years 20 00:01:27,359 --> 00:01:34,040 later. We had two very special visitors, birds my cockatails. They were 21 00:01:34,120 --> 00:01:37,680 part of the wedding as well, and they sat next to a man made 22 00:01:37,719 --> 00:01:40,840 little pond that we'd created because I was trying to do whatever I could to 23 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:42,200 stop the erosion, and I thought, oh, the rain water we'll run 24 00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:47,680 into here. Well, you know what, that's my inexperienced talking. But 25 00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:49,560 on that wedding day, you know, we all have inexperience when it comes 26 00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:53,599 to how are these vows really going to play out? But we didn't question 27 00:01:53,719 --> 00:01:59,640 them. We embraced them. And as I stand on this place where we 28 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:06,519 said I do guarantee you over and over again, I turned to look to 29 00:02:06,519 --> 00:02:10,439 see how the land has changed so much, especially from the past heavy rain 30 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:15,599 that we had with all the different flooding. The pond is no longer there, 31 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:20,800 the creek is much different, it's moving in a different direction. There 32 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:23,000 is no green grass on this cold day because the day that we got married 33 00:02:23,080 --> 00:02:27,719 July eleventh, nineteen ninety three. It was one hundred and two degrees. 34 00:02:28,319 --> 00:02:31,240 Now, the one thing that I wanted most to happen that day was for 35 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:37,199 my parents to hear the wedding. But in nineteen ninety three, cell phones 36 00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:39,719 they weren't an everyday thing. They weren't part of our lives. They were 37 00:02:39,759 --> 00:02:44,080 there, but they just weren't part of our lives. So my mother and 38 00:02:44,159 --> 00:02:47,639 father celebrated their anniversary on the same exact day, on the day that we 39 00:02:47,680 --> 00:02:52,840 took our first step into a brand new beginning. But this is it a 40 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:57,719 very very sacred place, in this meadow, in this forest. Hey, 41 00:02:57,719 --> 00:02:59,879 thanks for being a part of the conversation.