1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,560
Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation. This

2
00:00:02,600 --> 00:00:05,480
is Forest Stories. I am the Poet in the Forest,

3
00:00:05,759 --> 00:00:08,480
a children's series that I pinned out in the nineteen nineties. Now,

4
00:00:08,480 --> 00:00:10,640
none of it would be possible if it wasn't for

5
00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:13,480
this forest right here in South Arlotte, North Carolina. I

6
00:00:13,519 --> 00:00:16,480
talk about it so much that I thought maybe it's

7
00:00:16,519 --> 00:00:19,679
time that you get to know what has inspired me

8
00:00:20,239 --> 00:00:24,359
for thirty years. Thanks for being a part of the conversation.

9
00:00:25,359 --> 00:00:28,920
Welcome back to the forest. The pig Lady. Whoa wait

10
00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:33,000
a second, this is not a bad story. The pig lady.

11
00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:38,479
She had a pig, a big pig, very big pig

12
00:00:39,439 --> 00:00:42,280
during the days when having a pig at home was

13
00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:45,439
part of your life. And the thing is is that

14
00:00:45,679 --> 00:00:49,079
she showed us and displayed so much love for an

15
00:00:49,119 --> 00:00:52,240
animal that belongs on a farm, and yet she was

16
00:00:52,479 --> 00:00:56,240
in the city with this pig. She's been a part

17
00:00:56,280 --> 00:01:00,280
of this forest for over thirty years. I've been here

18
00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:05,280
thirty two and to hear her stories, to talk with her,

19
00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:09,840
to dream with her, to be with her. She's at

20
00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:14,040
the base of Heartbreak Hill. And the most amazing thing

21
00:01:14,799 --> 00:01:18,640
about this journey is that there's a huge mystery that

22
00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:21,680
comes with it is that as much as we saw

23
00:01:21,719 --> 00:01:27,120
that pig, we didn't know much about her, because it

24
00:01:27,159 --> 00:01:31,280
was more about showing off the pig, almost like Charlotte's Web.

25
00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:36,239
The pig. Everybody loves a pig, everybody likes to share

26
00:01:36,280 --> 00:01:40,799
their versions of what Charlotte's Web is all about. But

27
00:01:40,879 --> 00:01:43,680
when the pig was no longer there, what she did

28
00:01:43,799 --> 00:01:48,920
was she began to share different stories about the dogs.

29
00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:51,439
The thing about her dogs is that she wouldn't rescue

30
00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:55,079
them in the way of having ownership. Her journey with

31
00:01:55,200 --> 00:01:59,680
dogs was about fostering the dogs. I didn't understand the

32
00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:02,799
stream of a dog. Nobody on the block was thinking

33
00:02:02,879 --> 00:02:05,280
like that. We just knew a lot of dogs were there,

34
00:02:05,519 --> 00:02:08,159
and then suddenly a lot of dogs were gone. For

35
00:02:08,240 --> 00:02:10,520
the past three days, as Jazzy and I have taken

36
00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:14,639
our transition walk through this forest in South Charlotte, the

37
00:02:14,719 --> 00:02:19,639
man has been sitting on the giant rock in his yard,

38
00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:23,159
and as I pass it right now, there is a

39
00:02:23,479 --> 00:02:30,080
beautiful dough. The deer is so amazingly peaceful. Three days

40
00:02:31,039 --> 00:02:35,039
sitting on the rock, when all of this time has

41
00:02:35,039 --> 00:02:39,479
gone by and I have never seen him on the

42
00:02:39,560 --> 00:02:43,479
rock here's the part of the story that you don't know.

43
00:02:45,039 --> 00:02:49,360
About two and a half weeks ago, an ambulance was

44
00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:52,680
at the door of the pig Lady. I heard a

45
00:02:52,680 --> 00:02:59,479
lot of screaming, not screaming with anger, but screaming of pain.

46
00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:05,520
I don't know her name, and that's my fault. I

47
00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:09,960
don't know her story, and that's my fault because when

48
00:03:09,960 --> 00:03:13,080
you live in a forest, you're part of a journey

49
00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:17,000
of growing forward. But where you and I both black

50
00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:23,520
is getting to know the lyrics of the song. We assume,

51
00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:31,800
we pretend, but we don't know the story. Why is

52
00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:39,039
the man saying on the rock that's something happened to

53
00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:44,680
the big lady him? Eryl, thanks for being a part

54
00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:46,159
of the conversation.