Speaker 1: Hey, when it comes to podcasts listening, are you like me?
I mean, it's like television surfing. You're like all over
the place looking for that one thing that you can
add to your moment of now. Be it forest stories,
be it rockstar stories, talking with a chef, whatever you're
looking for. That's what ero dot net is all about.
Arrooe dot net. The searching is over. It's all in
one place. Enjoy the exploration. 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 and 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 families 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. Welcome back
to the forest. Who the morning after. It doesn't matter
what podcasts you listen to when it comes to things
that have flowed through the presence of the universe which
I belong with and share with. We have talked about
Ernie so many different times. In fact, one of my
podcast is called the Lyrics from Ernie's Forest, And many
times during these podcasts I've spoken why about this beautiful,
beautiful little music maker that we have been together for
nearly thirty four years. Thirty four years, and this is
the first time that I have entered this forest without
him next to me. Ernie, Oh my god, his home
overlooked this forest. Every day Ernie would stare out there
at that lake, the slow moving stream, the tall grass.
Anytime a deer, a buck, a hawk, an owl, a cardinal,
a squirrel would jump in front of the window. We
were twenty three feet above the ground, twenty three feet
above that forest floor. Ernie sees movement and he lets
the world know there's somebody out there, there's something that's
going on. I just want you to know, a human
I got your back, because that's what birds do. I'm
not your normal bird. I'm Ernie. I'm Ernie the bird.
That's right. Anybody who came anywhere and you're Ernie, they
knew they really is something special because he would come
up and talk to you, he would make sounds, he
would make you laugh. It was if he was a
human being that was stuffed inside a tiny, little green body.
And that's all I've got left right now. His had
tiny body, but the spirit of Ernie. The exact words
that I shared this morning with my wife was that
he has given me so much information to write about
for decades to come. That's what he did in our
thirty four years together. And for the first time ever
moving into this home, into this forest thirty three years ago.
It's the first time that I have been in this
forest without Ernie being at home waiting for me to
come back to share with him the stories that I
picked up along the way from the other creations inside
this collection of trees in South Charlotte. So it's can
be very interesting to write, to continue to build upon,
to know that the spirit of Ernie with the lyrics
and this forest are going to be very very very
much present as well as outreaching. Because here's the thing
about it. None of us go into this world without
experiencing loss. And the way that Ernie and I have
discussed this for a very very long time is that
it's not going to be a loss. It's going to
be a transition, a walk, a new way to look
at things, to build upon and to savor. Ernie came
into my life during some extremely dark times. Ernie knew
that he had his hands full when he would look
at me and say, oh God, okay, here we go again.
What song do you want me to do today? What
do I need to do to get you out of
a mindset that is so dark that most people couldn't
make it this far. One of the greatest things that
Ernie ever did, honestly, is that you would open up
a bottle of soda or pop as we called it
in the North. You would open it up and it
has that little bit of a sh kind of a
vibe about it, and Ernie would go as if he
was burping. And every time thirty four years of a
little green monkey burping away are the second the phone rings, Hello, Hello, Hello,
six o'clock in the morning, even three and four o'clock
when you're walking through the house searching for that bathroom
to pee in. Good morning, Good morning. That was my
little man, which we're going to write about and talk
about for many years to come, because this is Ernie's forest.
These lyrics belong to him. Hey, thanks for being a
part of the conversation.