1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,560
Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation. This

2
00:00:02,600 --> 00:00:05,480
is for stories. I am the Poet in the Forest,

3
00:00:05,759 --> 00:00:08,480
a children's series that I pinned out in the nineteen nineties. Now,

4
00:00:08,480 --> 00:00:10,640
none of it would be possible if it wasn't for

5
00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:13,480
this forest right here in South Charlotte, North Carolina. I

6
00:00:13,519 --> 00:00:16,480
talk about it so much that I thought, maybe it's

7
00:00:16,519 --> 00:00:19,679
time that you get to know what has inspired me

8
00:00:20,239 --> 00:00:24,359
for thirty years. Thanks for being a part of the conversation.

9
00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:28,600
Welcome back to the forest. A portrait of an aging poet.

10
00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:33,200
Got this full vision of myself while preparing to come

11
00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:37,039
out inside this force. Today in the mirror, I was

12
00:00:37,119 --> 00:00:42,399
leaning forward like that of an aging poet, my hair

13
00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:46,759
starting to get a little gray. Nothing really like the

14
00:00:46,799 --> 00:00:48,679
poet that was here in this forest in nineteen ninety

15
00:00:48,719 --> 00:00:51,920
two and in nineteen ninety seven when we replenished this

16
00:00:51,960 --> 00:00:55,759
force with seventeen hundred trees. With the bending over. Today

17
00:00:56,640 --> 00:01:00,840
served as a reminder that the poet is aging the

18
00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:04,599
pains in the mind, body, and soul. They're not ageless,

19
00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:08,560
but they're also priceless because the pains have taught me

20
00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:13,359
to slow down, don't race through this forest, embrace it,

21
00:01:14,239 --> 00:01:18,000
feel the rays of the sunlight, the light breeze, all

22
00:01:18,040 --> 00:01:21,319
of these leaves on the forest floor. Because in reality,

23
00:01:21,359 --> 00:01:24,079
the way that the world goes, when will the next

24
00:01:24,120 --> 00:01:28,599
time be? That you'll see? So much beauty each day

25
00:01:28,719 --> 00:01:31,079
is nothing but a gift. And if we don't treat

26
00:01:31,120 --> 00:01:34,359
it as the gift that it is, then how do

27
00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:39,920
you really put a definition on your aging self? Is

28
00:01:39,959 --> 00:01:42,480
that what it's all about. It's about the moment of

29
00:01:42,519 --> 00:01:46,040
now while trying to keep yourself in tune with everything

30
00:01:46,079 --> 00:01:48,560
that is brand new, when in fact the lessons that

31
00:01:48,599 --> 00:01:52,200
we've learned in life have come from around us. Mind

32
00:01:52,239 --> 00:01:55,680
just happens to be this beautiful forest. Yeah, I was

33
00:01:55,680 --> 00:01:57,959
the poet in the forest, the writer, the one that

34
00:01:57,959 --> 00:02:03,040
wrote children's stories. Today he's bent over, grain in the hair,

35
00:02:03,719 --> 00:02:07,840
his attitude still on fire. But these trees embrace me.

36
00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:10,879
They don't judge me, they don't see me as old.

37
00:02:11,240 --> 00:02:15,439
They just see me as one of them, a human tree. Hey,

38
00:02:15,439 --> 00:02:17,000
thanks for being a part of the conversation.