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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 Arlotte, 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. It's Christmas morning, no snow,

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a little chilly, but very peaceful to walk through these trees,

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to look at the lake, to experience this moment that

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in itself is part of the gift, the gift from

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the forest everybody that I'm running into out here within

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these trees, you get that calm, warm, compassionate merry Christmas.

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Done so in a very Southern way, because you know,

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there's just something about the South. I can't ever put

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my finger on it, but there's just something about the

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South that even when they say bless your heart, you

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know that there's something going on inside your soul. But

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to be in this forest on Christmas Day, it's such

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a warm feeling It's like we look at each other,

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all of these living creatures, the squirrels, the hawks, so

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many deer, and we just whisper Merry Christmas because we've

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done another year together, whereas some people say, we made

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it another year around the sun. And what an amazing

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sun it has been on this forest this year. Not

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too hot, very energized in the way of allowing new

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growth to find their roots and to start reaching toward

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the sky. That's what I love about this forest. There

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are lessons to be learned every day if you take

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the time to stop, just listen. Listen to the music

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I call it jazz. Watch the wind as it goes

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in between the leafless branches. Look at the ripples on

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the lake. The stream is ever so slow because we

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haven't had water in so long. But the forest is speaking,

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and on this Christmas Day, it's saying Merry Christmas. Hey,

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thanks for being a part of the conversation.