Speaker 1: Hey, when it comes to podcasts listening, are you like me?
I mean, it's like television surfing. You're like all over
the place looking for that one thing that you can
add to your moment of now. Be it forest stories,
be it rockstar stories, talking with a chef, whatever you're
looking for. That's what ero dot net is all about.
Arrooe dot net. The searching is over. It's all in
one place. Enjoy the exploration. Hey, thanks for being a
part of the conversation. Welcome to Forest Stories, a series
of short winded adventures within a collection of skyscraping trees,
stuck feet first and Georgia Clay right here in Carolina.
It's been a huge part of my daily journey for
over thirty three years. I Am the Poet in the Forest,
a children's series written and recorded in the nineteen nineties.
It's grown into multiple podcasts that now reach around the world,
and none of it would be possible without this forest
right here in South Charlotte, North Carolina, at the base
of Heartbreak Hills. It's a sign that reads Rainbow Forest. Well,
it's time you get to meet what's inspired several generations
long before the paved paths decorated with colorful homes colonized
around this beautiful lake, slow moving stream, flatland swamps, and
array of natural animals. There were families and business owners
who are said to have raced into this area for
the beauty of the land, wild roses, migratory birds, and
wild grapevines. Those before me either forgot to write about
it or it's buried somewhere inside their family tree. Hey,
thanks for being a part of the conversation.
Speaker 2: Hey, thanks for coming back to the forest the moment.
And I'm not alone, but I'm not going to be
that guy, which makes me alone, that guy who just
saw his dog leave something behind. It never smells good,
it never will. And what's the one thing that you
did that a lot of people do. They either forgot
the poop bag or they just don't care about the
poop bag. Well, I do care, and I am a
little bit disappointed that I walked freely of the house
to come out into this beautiful forest, to now have
my hand holding on to something that once belonged to
my beautiful pointer, my disaster artist Jazzy. I can't do it.
I can't see her do what she does. And then
I walk away from that, knowing what could be on
that path for somebody else to step in. And usually
it's when they at least expect it, and what do
they do in that moment of now? They will sit
there and they'll curse at people like myself. But I'm
not going to be that person. That's why I'm not
going to be alone on this idea of use your
god given hand and pick up the junk. Do not
leave a dog's trash on a forest floor. But obviously
we know someone, we have been someone, or we have
been disappointed with someone who has made that decision to
just let their dog poop and keep on walking, because
poop is what we all do. You've seen that book, Yeah,
but how do you feel when you walk into a
public bathroom and someone didn't clean up after themselves. You
don't like that, do you? It smells? But yet we
elect to do it inside a forest in a park.
But you're going to have to use something to clean
that up so that your dog something doesn't create a
trail that someone's going to kind of just take into
their office, their home. Maybe they're going from a walk
in the forest right into their car and all of
a sudden they realize even though they stop by McDonald's
to get those French fries, it doesn't really smell like
fries anymore inside that car. What do you do? How
do you grow from it? What do you learn? Is
it part of taking care of a forest. I've seen
people that'll see their dogs do the dew and they'll
use their toes to kick it off the path, and it'say,
I don't know if that's right either. And yet I'll
see the deer with their little pebbles, I'll see the
rabbits with their little marbles. I'll see the hawk and
oh my god, when we were on Lake Wilie one
time and that eagle released its load not even three
feet from us inside the kayak, you sit there and
you go, WHOA. If I would have stepped in that
swam in that, if I would have touched that, I
would come out as the monster of the Blue Lagoon.
So that's the situation stepping inside a forest, and it's
something you shouldn't have stepped in. Thanks for being a
part of the conversation.