Speaker 1: 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 in 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,
sits 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. This week, the Writer's
Canvas unveils the story of the falling leaves, the final dance. Hey,
welcome back to the forest fall time and Caroline. Man,
it's more than just the cooler temperatures. It's more than
just the red, orange and brown leaves, and with the
orange ones falling on the ground as well. There's so
much that takes place inside this forest that it becomes
an annual classroom for me because I watch the animals.
I watch how the squirrels are collecting all the different
acorns and nuts, because those acorns are falling like you
wouldn't believe, because it's fall time in Caroline, and so
the acorns and the gumball trees, and I never see
a squirrel go in that direction, nor do I see
the cardinals or even the blue jays step into an
area where the gumballs are because they say that, well,
you know what, it's just not a well like tree.
And yet if you do the studying of the gumball trees,
especially those here in this area in this forest, what
happens is is that the gumball This is what I
read is that way back in the early days, back
in the eighteen hundreds and seventeen hundreds, people would purchase
from other countries. They would purchase our gumballs because it
provides a substance inside that creates gum. And so it's
one of those things where I have gumball trees throughout
my forest. Well, people who walk through my area, go God,
get rid of the gumball trees. It is hard to
walk out here, Oh yes it is. And please, whatever
you do, don't walk out here with bare feet, because
you're going to have little prickers inside your toes. So
it's just one of those things about fall time, when
everything starts to fall, and what do humans do when
they start to fall. That's when we go into doctors
and we say, hey, man, we need to pick it
up here, we need to pick it up there. Or
the doctor will look at you and then say things
such as, well, you're at that age where you know
you're dropping everything and there's nothing we can do about it.
But it's very interesting how nature. I don't see it
as being depressing when I see the gumballs falling, or
the acorns falling, the leaves falling. In fact, I stand
beside so many trees inside this forest and I watch
as their leaves dance from those high, high limbs, and
it's an elegant dance all the way down to the
forest floor. I've done songs, I've done poetry, I've done
so much writing about the elegance of the final dance.
That leaf falling to the forest floor is exactly how
I want to go. I want to be able to
say it's time to let go. I'm going to take
the final dance. I'm going to just fall with the breeze,
and wherever I land is where the new beginning starts. Hey,
thanks for being a part of the conversation.