Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation. This
is Forest Stories. I am the Poet in the Forest,
a children's series that I pinned out in the nineteen nineties. Now,
none of it would be possible if it wasn't for
this forest right here in South Charlotte, North Carolina. I
talk about it so much that I thought maybe it's
time that you get to know what has inspired me
for thirty years. Thanks for being a part of the conversation.
Welcome back to the forest. Winter is setting in as
we enter the month of December. One look at the
forecasts and it's going to be twenty one degrees at night,
maybe even colder daytime highs barely in the mid forties.
It's not as cold as what we've had in years past,
but it is a reminder that wintertime has arrived. It's
knocking on our hearts. It's knocking on our imaginations because
it's very tough to walk through this forest to see
the naked trees, to clearly see the hawks and owls.
What are they hiding behind? But those squirrels, they just
continuously keep working. They're building their homes, they're saving their
food for the winter months. I watch them, because if
they're saving a lot, what should that tell the human
who lives in this forest. Temperatures are getting cold doesn't
mean I'm going to stay inside. My thing is to
enjoy everything outside, and the thing about this forest, and
it could be like so many others, that has soft
whisper like I'm doing right now, can easily be heard
on the other side of the lake. So I often
wonder is somebody hearing me in the way of saying, Hey,
step out into the forest. This is not a neighborhood.
This is a collection of trees that just happens to
invite humans to participate with its beauty, no matter what
the season is, wintertime knocking on our hearts. Hey, human,
come out to play. If you get to know this year,
stay a lot longer than you normally do, because it
doesn't happen all the time. Just enjoy it. Enjoy the silence,
the solitude, and the beauty of being free, just like
the wind. Hi, MARYL. Thanks for being a part of
a conversation.