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

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

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

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

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

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

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conversation. Welcome back to the forest. Today. We're on Heartbreak Hill.

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Heartbreak because it is heartbreaking, so
much history on this one hill that leads

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into the deeper forest that which I
live within. We're nowhere near the lake

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or the stream. We're on Heartbreak
Hill. I don't care how in shape

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you are or what bike you're writing
to get from the base of this hill,

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all the way to the top is
going to recavoc on your heart.

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It's a heartbreaker, so much so
that in two thousand and nine, shortly

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after my heart attack at the age
of four forty seven, Heartbreak Hill became

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that one place that I needed to
remaster. I knew that I needed to

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get my heart pumping in a better
direction and This is where I got my

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heart rate up. Walk back down
the hill, do it again, Go

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up the hill, go back down, do it again. It was time

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to strengthen everything so that my body
could become healed and much stronger than what

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it was. But Heartbreak Hill is
a place that's visited by many other people,

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especially the skateboarders. It's paved Heartbreak
Hill, but the forest is on

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both sides. The skateboarders come here
and film themselves because the hill is so

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tall that they are allowed enough space
to do their art. Heartbreak Hill the

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winter months where we have to park
our cars at the base of the hill

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because there's too much ice and snow
for cars to get up it. Heartbreak

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Hill. Maybe one time in the
past, before where all these homes were

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built, somebody planted the name of
this hill inside our future hearts. Maybe

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they fell in love and out of
love at the top of this hill and

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they knew in their moment of now
that this would be a heartbreak hill.

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Their life was going to change because
the love of their life was gone.

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Now where do I pull that from? If you look up the history of

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Charlotte and this particular area, the
owners of this land came here all the

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time to be at the lake,
to play within the wild roses, and

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to eat the wild grapes. They
would bring their girlfriends here a lot of

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love. But what if inside this
forest, the top of Heartbreak Hill,

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to which I stand right now,
maybe something broke up and in the tears

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they said, I am broken today
on this hill. It shall forever be

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remembered as Heartbreak Hill. Let it
ring into the hearts of any poet,

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writer, or just listener that this
hill is a place that changes lives.

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Hi Meril, thanks for being a
part of the conversation.