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Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation. This

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is Forest Stories. I'm the Poet in the Forest, a

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children's series that I pinned out in the nineteen nineties.

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Now none of it would be possible if it wasn't

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for this forest right here in South Charlotte, North Carolina.

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I talk about it so much that I thought maybe

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it's time that you get to know what has inspired

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me for thirty years. Thanks for being a part of

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the conversation. Welcome back to the forest. The morning after

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winter Storm Cora, a lot of ice and snow. A

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lot of people afraid because it's been three years since

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we've had a storm like this hit this area, especially

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this forest. But to be in this forest this morning,

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to see the ice on the leafless limbs, to hear

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the waters it falls to the earth, that is just saying,

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give me something more to sip on. The snow will

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melt away. It always does very quickly here in the South,

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especially in this forest. But every step that I take,

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I've going to watch it. Because you know, black ice

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is black ice. It's more than just being something you

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find on the road. It's actually in a forest as well.

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But I wish you could just hear the drops. It's

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almost like it's raining with no clouds in the sky.

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There's so much peace in here. The ground is just

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so saturated, and the trees are going. Thank you so much,

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because you know what happens every year, the bugs collect

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inside the trees. I would say, now the cicadas that

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were here over the summer, they're gone. The remnants are

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now officially gone because the ice has washed them away.

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Now you may not remember this, but a couple of

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weeks ago on Forest Stories, I was talking about how

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the squirrels were preparing, and I found it very interesting

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that on that very very cold day, the squirrels were

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working extra hard and rebuilding their nests high, high, high

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in the trees. Is it possible that those squirrels knew

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that winter Storm Cora was on the way, because today

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it's perfectly beauty fall. Sure it's still cold, but it's

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going to warm up, and the squirrels have got to

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be sitting inside those homes going I knew what I

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was doing a couple of weeks ago. It just takes

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a little bit of preparation. In fact, if you look

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up the story the Native American spirituality, story of the squirrels.

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They are creatures of being prepared. They know what to do.

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They listen. They're so close to the ground that they

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can hear the vibrations of the planet, so when Mother

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Earth is speaking and they're listening, it helps them during

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things like winter Storm Coral. But today it's like a

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brand new day, fresh out of the package. The sun

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is so bright, the ice on the tree limbs so beautiful. Hey,

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thanks for being a part of the conversation.