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Hey, thanks for being a part
of the conversation. I am the Poet

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in the Forest, a children's series
I pinned out in the nineteen nineties.

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Now, none of it would be
possible if it wasn't for this forest in

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South Charlotte, North Carolina. I
talk about it so much that I thought

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maybe it's time you get to meet
all that inspires me. Thank you for

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being a part of the conversation.
Hey, Sarah. For the past eleven

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years, I've talked a lot about
my forest here in South Charlotte, North

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Carolina. In nineteen ninety seven,
we planted seventeen hundred trees. It was

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my mission, my calling to do
this, because this lay of land was

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screaming to go back to where it
used to be before man stepped in and

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built homes. I've talked about it
so much, and yet you've never heard

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my forest talk. So I want
to create a podcast that allows you to

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meet all the different trees, the
long tall grass, and the stream that

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leads to the lake, all of
this beauty in South Charlotte, North Carolina.

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There's a reason why when these people
call me up, when they say,

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hey, we want to give you
an off or for your house.

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I say, do you have seven
million dollars? And they sit there and

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they laugh, and I go,
you have no idea what's been happening in

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this forest since I arrived in nineteen
ninety two, especially when we put those

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seventeen hundred trees in the ground in
nineteen ninety seven. Today I'm standing next

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to an elm. This elm was
just barely four inches when it was put

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into the ground. I remember it
vividly, but I could never really picture

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what it was going to look like
all these years later. And yet here

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I am at the trunk and it's
standing twenty seven thirty feet above me.

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So did you know who I was
when you arrived from the North Carolina tree

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dot Com place? I know,
I'm telling you that's exactly what it was.

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See you arrived in a box,
and I was like, going,

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you gotta be kid me. There's
no sunshine in that box. I totally

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get it. But let me ask
you a question, though, So when

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I put you in this place,
which is the center of the yard,

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I mean, in reality, you
know, I was tired of mowing the

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lawn, but I needed something here. But but but did you know that

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that I truly was a tree lover
you did I know? Was there just

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something in my voice? Or when
when when we put you in the ground,

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what happened? Oh? Oh no, seriously are you? Are you

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for real? Oh? My god? You know. One of the things

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that's hurt me so bad is the
fact that that when we had to prune

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you, that breaks my heart because
I mean, that's like cutting off a

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finger. I would never cut off
a finger on a human. Why am

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I cutting off the branches of a
tree? And yet I can see today

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as you reach toward the sky that
that you you really are a presence,

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and that you offer shade and you
offer cool things. Do you ever think

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about us when we're walking below?
Come on now, no, no,

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no, no, no, no, no, you can't say that.

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Okay, I realize it did hurt
when I when I cut off the limb,

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But but but look look at how
strong you are today. I think

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that if you had too many limbs, you'd be too heavy and you would

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fall over. Let me ask you
a question, though, you know,

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I noticed standing here today that there
are a lot of ants going up and

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down your trunk. Do you feel
them? Does it tickle? Does it

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piss you off? I mean,
what happens yep, yep, yep,

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yep, yep. Yeah yo.
Do they sting you like they sting me?

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Oh you're kidding me? Oh my
god. Well, you know,

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personally, between you and I elm
in my front yard. The one thing

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that really scares me the most is
that I never want to see the day

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that a woodpecker starts landing on you
and I hear tap tap tap tap tap

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tap tap tap tap, because I've
known you since you were about four inches

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tall. So you pay attention to
the birds as well. Okay, hold

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hold on, hold on, hold
on, hold on. If you pay

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attention to the birds, what are
all these feathers coming from? You know,

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my brother passed away and suddenly all
these feathers started appearing in the front

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yard and they're always around you.
Is that a hawk? Is it an

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owl? Is it an angel?
What do you think it is? Oh?

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Really, honestly, no, No, someone's not going to go to

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Michael's and I'm not going to go
to Party City to buy a bag of

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feathers and put out here just to
tease the writer. Right, You've got

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no, this is stupid. Really
Okay, Well, I put these rocks

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below you because some people don't want
rocks in the yards. I kind of

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like the side of a mountain because
I come from Montana, and I put

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these rocks below you because I want
you to feel like that you are solid

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in your rooting system, although you
are leaning, which kind of scares me

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because you know, how strong is
this soil? Do you find yourself in

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a presence of now? Or do
you find yourself you know, just kind

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of saying, hey, look,
one day I'm gonna come down, but

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I know that my human companion is
going to put me in a place where

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I can share with other things.
See, you do have compassion. Oh

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really, See that's what I was
thinking. I was thinking that if I

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put you into the forest and I
gave you back to the earth, all

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the different animals that would come to
you, including the different bugs and things.

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I mean, I mean, we're
looking at these ants today and without

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you, would they have a mountain
to climb? Because maybe ants are doing

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that, they're like maybe raising money
for some sort of ant foundation or something.

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Man, you know, I love
you right. You've been with me

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since nineteen ninety seven. I have
never forgotten the day that you went into

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the soil. I just want to
thank you for being a part of the conversation