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Hey, we're trying something new a
podcast called Thanks for Being a part of

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the conversation. A part of the
conversation that you don't get to fall witness

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too is my love for this forest
in South Charlotte, North Carolina. In

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the nineteen nineties, I was the
poet in the Forest. It was a

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children's series that I pinned out,
none of it would be possible if it

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wasn't for this force where I presently
stand right here in Charlotte. I talk

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about it and write about it so
much that I thought it was time that

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you get to be a part of
what has been inspiring me since nineteen ninety

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two. Hey, thanks for being
a part of the conversation. I'm sitting

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next to a tree right now that
was planted in August of two thousand and

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one when Larry the Wonder Dog passed
away. I thought it would be a

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great way to honor his legacy with
a tree, with a tree that scrapes

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the sky, that listens to all
the rainbows and the winds and the changes

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in any type of weather conditions.
And so what's pretty cool about this tree,

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which is a white pine, is
that beneath it are several other seedlings,

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and I sit there and I think, Wow, one day there's going

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to be another writer or a poet
that's going to sit next to this tree,

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and they're gonna wonder what was the
beginning like, what were the challenges

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and the changes, what were the
people like that lived here. What they

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probably won't see are these two statues
that are probably about maybe six or seven

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feet from the Larry tree. These
statues are not like normal statues. I

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have them facing the forest and not
the street. And the reason being is

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because I've always envisioned writers coming to
this forest, and when they sit in

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this little ravine, it's very interesting
to feel. What some people might say,

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it's just a hole, it's a
hill. There's no energy in something

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like that, and yet there is
because there are so many tree roots that

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are here that collect the water what
it pours from the sky. And these

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two statues, one of them is
a little girl who's sitting and another one

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who basically she doesn't have a head. It fell off. It's been here

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for many years. Well why haven't
I tossed it away? Because I believe

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in life, That's what I do, and I think that if you sit

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here and use your imagination. You're
bringing your own personal interpretation of the story

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to the life of this forest.
But their backs are to the street because

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I envision future creative people to sit
down and look into this forest and feel

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with their own senses the power of
this forest in the way that it's so

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giving every day, with the wild
life, with the leaves on the trees,

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the flowers that grow from out of
nowhere. I once read that in

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this forest one of the richest people
in the city would come here for the

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wild roses. Let it grow,
let it happen, let it evolve.

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But these two statues next to the
Larry tree are the beginning of your next

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step if you're a creative person or
somebody who would like to know that inner

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core of what's been talking to them
for many years. Two statues with their

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backs to the street, overlooking a
forest. Thanks for being a part of

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the conversation.