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Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation. This

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is Forest Stories. I am the Poet in the Forest,

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a 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.

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Speaker 2: What a lot of people don't realize about this collection

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of trees is how important it is to just come

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out here, step on the path and just receive, to listen,

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to learn from, to open your eyes as well as

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open your heart. Today, the moment I'm in this forest,

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something came to me. Because I'm always wondering why certain

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people don't gel with each other, why certain people don't

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create together, why there's always a wall, And then this

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forest almost spoke out to me. I heard something very

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deep inside my heart, because I do believe in that rule.

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If you don't speak to me, I won't speak to you.

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That does come across as being self centered or conceited,

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but it's just who I am, and it might be

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something that I learned from my father because he was

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that way as well. If you don't speak to me,

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I won't speak to you because I don't want to

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interrupt your life. But see, when I come out here

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to this forest and I listen, do I ever speak

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back to what it's willing to share with me.

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Speaker 1: It's speaking to me. Why am I not speaking to it?

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Speaker 2: Or on this path inside this forest what we're doing

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right now? Maybe it's not the words that I share

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with you, but rather the thoughts this forest has used

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me to share with you.

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Speaker 1: If you don't speak to me, I won't speak to you.

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This forest does not play by that rule. Hey, thanks

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for being a part of the conversation.