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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 Charlotte, 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. I've always called it the

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bag of shame. Yeah, I'm that dog owner that doesn't

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leave the house without bags of shame inside their pockets.

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Hold on a second here and talk about the bag

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of shame. But look at this. Oh my god, a

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beautiful red feather from a cardinal. That's a gift from

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the universe. Wow, that's awesome. See it's amazing when you

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take the time to really step into this forest and

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take a look at the small things, the things that

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we tend to walk above and beyond, around through under,

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and we don't pay attention to something as simple as

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a cardinal's feather. It looks like a wing feather. No, no, no,

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definitely a tail feather because of the length. But let's

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get back to the bag of shame. When you're taking

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your dog walking through this forest or any other forest, well,

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look at this, it's another feather. What are the chances

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that within maybe fifteen twenty steps I go from a

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cardinal feather to now I've got a blue jay feather.

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This force is so giving today that it just fills

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your heart with so much joy that they are so

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willing to share their feathers with you because feathers are flight,

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feathers are outreach. Feathers give warmth. Feathers have so much

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purpose in a bird's life, and if you take the

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time to look at the gifts that they've had, then

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you're able to feel the joy in your own personal life.

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But wow, not close a cardinal feather and a blue

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jay's feather. But do we really need to get back

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into the bag of shame? Because the feathers seem to

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be the bigger, better story here, and the bag of

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shame is exactly what you think it is. And all

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I was going to do is put focus on that

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I'm the guy that does carry all the bags with him.

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And the reason why is because how many people actually

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have their dogs in this forest, and if you're not

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paying attention to the forest floor, you're going to step

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into something that should belong to a bag of shame.

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But the story much bigger today, A true gift from

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those that fly, from those that give us songs in

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the middle of the day, from those that just like

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to share something as simple as a feather. I smiled

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like a child, and that's why this forest is so

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so important. Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation.