Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation. This is four Stories.
I'm the Poet in the Forest, a children's series that I pinned out
in the nineteen nineties. Now, none of it would be possible if it
wasn't for this forest right here in South Charlotte, North Carolina. I talk
about it so much that I thought maybe it's time that you get to know
what has inspired me for thirty years. Thanks for being a part of the
conversation. Welcome back to the forest. September twenty fourth, my mother's birthday.
My mother got to spend one week with us inside this forest. That's
the only time in all the years that I've lived in Carolina, in this
forest that she ever came down from Montana to visit us. It's still planted
deep inside my heart the way that she would come out here on this deck,
which is twenty three feet above the forest floor, overlooking the slow paced
creek, extremely long tall grass, and these trees that I know are scraping
the clouds from the sky from this particular place. My mother couldn't see the
lake, but the essence of this moment, the twenty fourth day of September,
the memory of my mother being out here because every day, several times
a day, my mother would come out to be with this forest. My
mother was very spiritual. It's very very big chance that she was probably coming
out here to pray or meditate. Maybe my mother was dealing with her own
challenges in life. She grew up on the Powder River in Wyoming, a
farming district, very tough times back in those days, because, you know
what, they didn't have modern day technology like they do today. My mother
also worked in a bullet factory in World War Two. She kept dedicating her
life to serve others, and maybe that's what my mother was doing that one
week that she spent with me inside this forest in South Charlotte, North Carolina.
As much inspiration that I receive every single day and what I do with
that information in podcasting and writing in putting books together, my mother had seven
days to receive but I never asked her about it. And the reason why
I never asked my mom about it was because Mom was always about there are
two things you don't talk about in the everyday world, religion and politics.
So if it was going to be something that I would like to learn from
my mother about her spiritual studies in this forest or religious experience. I wasn't
going to do it because in her heart there are two things you never talk
about. So as I rest find peace solitude. I meditate on this deck
twenty three feet above the forest floor, overlooking this stream, this moving so
slow to the lake. The vision of my mother is very large in my
heart on her birthday. Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation.