Speaker 1: Hey, do me a favor. Don't forget about Arrow dot net,
Aroe dot net. All of my podcasts are waiting for
you to locate them and have some fun as well
as maybe learn something Arrow dot net, rre dot net. 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 in 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 fam 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. This week, the Writer's Canvas unveils a
look back at the forest.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the forest.
Speaker 1: I wrote something yesterday in my daily writing about the
structure of this forest when I entered it in November
of nineteen ninety two versus where we presently stand here
in October going into November of.
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: And what I wrote about was based on the visual
effects of how this forest is growing, because I've spent
a lot of time over the past few months really
trying to get into this forest and give it some
extra added love by way of pruning the trees, and
you know, you know, And the thing about it is,
it's all based on the human is that we kind
of plant inside these forests, and that also includes state force,
that includes national force. The human steps in there and says, well,
you know what, this is what we need to do
so that we prevent this from actually happening. So in
that writing, I actually was taking a look at what
it looked like in nineteen ninety two, and I described
it as a way that it must have looked back
in the early days of the maybe the fifteen and
sixteen hundreds, when all those settlers arrived on the East
coast of the United States, it wasn't even this country yet.
And what they did was they wanted to explore this
nation and document every plant life, to document every bird,
to be in a place where history would totally forget
about them. And yet what we do on an everyday
basis it through them without our knowledge, we're able to
enjoy what it is that we are getting from not
only force but even the dry lands of the prairies.
So that's the thing about it, is that if we
would just take the time to pull the lens back
and look at everything that took place before we arrived
in this moment of right now, be it twenty twenty five,
you might be listening to this in twenty twenty nine
or two thy thirty three. That's the thing about what
we're doing these days. We all think that what we
plant inside this world via social media is like this forest,
it's just going to keep growing. And you know, When
the forest keeps growing, the vines get thicker, not just
regular grape vines, but I'm talking about poison ivy lines.
Have you ever seen the size of a poison ivy vine?
Speaker 2: When the human.
Speaker 1: Being says, ah, you know what, that's farther than I
really want to go back in the forest.
Speaker 2: We're just gonna let it be and let it grow.
And then one day you walk back there and.
Speaker 1: It looks like a giant, fuzzy ass snake that's just
looking at you, going come up to me. I'm poison ivy.
I don't mind biting you. Human, You're gonna like the effects.
I'm gonna drive you so crazy that you're to be
thinking about me every night for several weeks ahead.
Speaker 2: I am poison ivy.
Speaker 1: I am in your forest. So what I was writing
about yesterday about the forest was one hundred percent based
on what it looked like in nineteen ninety two. In
all of this amazing pruning that we've been doing lately,
hen you feel guilty because these are your children. You
are cutting into these trees. But as you do that,
I speak softly to them, saying we're making things better.
The snow is coming, the winter will arrive sooner than
we can ever imagine. I don't want you to break
at your beautiful trunk because the human felt like, well,
we don't need to trim back the trees. Everything is
going to be fine. That is not true when it
comes to the forest. Sometimes we have to collaborate. We
have to write universal spiritual music. That means you've got
to take care of it so that it can take
care of you. Hey, thanks for being a part of
the conversation.