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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. I just saw a neighbor

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that I haven't seen in months. We've all been together

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twenty five, thirty years inside this forest. And these two

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who once had dogs and birds, are choosing to travel

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the world, and they really do. Vietnam, Wherever, Hong Kong, Paris,

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you name it. They travel the world. And so we

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get the opportunity to see them maybe once every six

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or seven months. And so I met up with Can

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today and it was about catching up. It was about

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getting older. It was about seeing how the forest has

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changed so dramatically, and how new people who have moved

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into it don't care and love for the trees as

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much as we have. And you should see their beautiful

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beautiful yard and collection of trees because they believe in

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the same thing that I do, that trees are a

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living thing and the plants that come with the trees

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are living things as well, and you learn to respect them.

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But what happened today was a rekindling of a friendship

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that is twenty five to thirty years old inside this forest.

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But it also brought attention to what happens when it

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changes more and more, meaning we're getting old and in

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the transitions of life. You can't transfer the love you

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have for trees and wild weeds to those who will

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gather what it is that you left behind, A thought

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that has been planted inside my soul with the idea

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of what can I do to help change this? And

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is there anything that we as a community can do

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to help change this. Of course, my long term vision

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of this forest is to do one thing, to buy

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up all the land and turn it into a park

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for writers, for thinkers, directors, musicians a place to come

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and write. But I think that's selfish of me when

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I say that just because I do all of that

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doesn't mean the rest of the world does. But it

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is a dream. This forest in South Charlotte to allow

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it to become that place of positive energy, and to

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invite people who want to love the trees and the

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wild weeds to come here and to help protect it

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long after I'm gone. Thanks for being a part of

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the conversation.