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: Welcome back to the forest. Many many times I've openly
written about the final dance. The final dance was originally
inspired by the falling leaves from these trees during the
fall months. The final dance when a tree sets free
its leaves in the way of giving them that opportunity
to slowly dance their way to the forest floor below,
to be able to experience the art of wind while
not testing the strength of nature, but understanding that nature
is calling out to you to serve in other areas
of the forested land, not to serve yourself or the
tree anymore unless you fall to the forest floor in
the way of feeding the roots of that tree, but
rather giving more of your journey to the other living things.
That continue to grow and or transition inside a forest,
always always changing. Today is the final dance from my
very very close and very spiritual friend, Ernie the Blue
Crown Conyer or my boy boy Ernie, as you've heard
on countless amounts of podcasts from the podcast Forest Stories,
View from the Right Instrument and so many others, that
I felt so incredibly safe to share his story of
overlooking this forest for thirty four years. I want you
to think about that thirty four years, this little man, Ernie,
a blue Crown Conyer, was given the opportunity to see
every single sunrise as well as its sunset. Ernie and
I shares several different walks inside this gorgeous forest during
those thirty four years, slow walks sometimes because it was
raining and he's a blue crown conye, a bird. What
we carried him in it would get just as wet
as Jazzy the disaster Artist, the pointer that came into
our life and brought so much peace, love, forgiveness, enjoyment
as well as determination, which if you page back to
my daily writing, you'll see that Ernie did one and
the same back in nineteen ninety two. Came in during
some of the darkest times of my life, where there
was no hope, no faith, no reason to journey forward.
And yet this green little man, this blue crown conyer
with a bright blue head, he would sit there and
look at me and he would go, good mornin, Did
you just talk to me? Good morning? And then we
would go for a stroll through the forest. We'd sit
outside because the deck overlooks the forest floor. We're twenty
three feet up. And we did that on purpose, because
we always wanted to feel like that we were part
of the birds. Today is the final dance. Ernie transitioned
just a few days ago, and I've been very patiently
trying to take it one step at a time to
make sure that he got to see the forest from
his point of view. And today we're out here on
the walk from his point of view, the slow moving
stream to my left, the beautiful, beautiful lake. Although it
is freezing out here, the sun is ever so bright
in honor of my baby Ernie, but it's so cold,
and the ice crystals took shape on top of the lake.
But it's such the perfect moment because Ernie's resting place
or place of continuation, because it is a transition is
going to overlook every bit of this. For thirty four years,
he looked out that window, stared into those trees, complained
when the deer were out there, did not like it
when the hawks would come around. Oh, he was just
so filled with unrest when he would see a blue
jay or even a black ques out there. He seemed
to like the red cardinals, and he didn't mind the pesky,
little playful squirrels. He would just sit there and look
out that window every sunrise, every sunset for thirty four years.
And today we're on the final Dance. We know what
is going to happen next. And all you can do
is say that if I stutter, if I fumble, if
I flip by flop, I twist, I stop, then I
think that that's more of an act of selfishness, and
I'm trying not to be that way, but rather to
be present with all things that are universal. But it's
happening in this forest, and it shows how much I
love this forest and everything that has grown with me.
And this little guy has been there for thirty four
yours on the final final Dance. Hey, thanks for being
a part of the conversation. How do I say goodbye.
Speaker 3: I'm leaving.
Speaker 2: Is the new beginning?
Speaker 4: How can I raise your hopes.
Speaker 2: When every day something I can't control?
Speaker 5: Our times a passage, time that wars true time.
Speaker 3: I love the.
Speaker 5: The hard.
Speaker 4: Each day.
Speaker 6: Sho your s the song should.
Speaker 3: Say bad through.
Speaker 4: Have fence gates and to have home my gang. Time
is lost and found each day, and.
Speaker 2: Angels forgiven smeo softcas bead.
Speaker 3: Have fns gates.
Speaker 5: Been bas friends, Hey, Let's do it again.
Speaker 3: Time so far the one a.
Speaker 4: Kiss the wind.
Speaker 6: The ocean sets within our reach, per sure, made of
sands of once living mountains.
Speaker 2: Time painted the path that which we now meet.
Speaker 6: Set inside a California sunset, where there is nothing but music.
I and Santa Barbara and you in Carmel, we are
set free by the waves, colorise, by the palms of trees. Unmasked,
we swim into the lost horizon, knowing one day we
will meet on the moony's side inside a stream, preparing
for the next journey. In our wings we shall hold
the lyrics of an unexpected dance. You wondering hearts.
Speaker 4: We are no more.
Speaker 6: We have passed through the tests of time and shall
fly at you an unborn tomorrow, never promising it.
Speaker 2: Everything we've been and shall see is a river.
Speaker 6: Fed by a guarantee to dance.
Speaker 5: Our time was surpassage.
Speaker 4: Time bad was true.
Speaker 6: I shall build rainbow made from God's best colors your eyes.
Speaker 3: Time is no jail, for.
Speaker 5: Gave me a final dance to share her with you.
I shall write in the absence the words.
Speaker 4: Too hard, So are we need to die.
Speaker 3: Before weemen? We all always have now when it's time
for r H dance.
Speaker 4: And open your eyes?
Speaker 3: Does so.
Speaker 5: Too far high?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 3: W holding casus
Speaker 4: Kusus in him The wind