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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. Now,

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

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this forest right here in South Arlotte, North Carolina. I

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talk about it so much that I thought, maybe it's

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time that you get to know what has inspired me

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for thirty years. Thanks for being a part of the conversation.

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Welcome back to the Forest Mother's Day. My mother came

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to this forest only one time during her years of

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several several several miles of so many multiple things that

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go on in a person's life. She spent three days

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with us inside this forest.

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Speaker 2: I think one of the things that really kind of

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caught me off guard was how much she would step

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outside and just stare into the trees, the slow moving

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stream twenty three feet above the forest floor, and she

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would just sit there and just take it all in. Now,

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my mother was a very spiritual mom and praise the

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Word of God because my father was the opposite direction,

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you know, opposite stew attract So my mom would just

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sit out there and I often felt like that she

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understood why it is that I sit in my writing

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chair every single day and stare into the same trees,

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the same slow moving stream that's headed to a beautiful lake.

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But Mom was in this forest, and I got to

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tell you, she's still here. She's still here in so

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many different ways. And that's one thing that people don't

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understand that about the everyday world. Just because you may

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not be here physically doesn't mean that you're not here spiritually.

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And so on this Mother's Day, as I walk through

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this forest, of course, I've got memories of her unbelievable

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singing voice, her piano playing, and her just sitting twenty

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three feet above the forest floor and just looking at

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all of those trees and that slow moving stream. Mother's

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Day a time to not only honor those that brought

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you into the world, but basically to look at your

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own life and say, what are you bringing to those

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that are in your present place of right now? This

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forest is what I'm bringing to you, the idea that

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you can be anywhere in the world and have that

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one place that you will hold on to forever. Thanks

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for being a part of the conversation.