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 raised 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.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the conversation. I am at the base
of Heartbreak Hill. I've talked about Heartbreak Hill for so
so long. I'm reminded of a conversation that I shared
with a friend yesterday about what it's like to go
home if you live in a different city, like I
did in Billings, Moontana. Going home to that place where
my father raised eight children, it always seemed incredibly small.
I remember walking through the house going, how did you
raise eight children with two parents in this home? How
did it even happen? And I can't help but wonder
the same exact thing. As I make my way up
Heartbreak Hill. What I see as something that is extraordinarily large,
very heart wrenching as well as breathtaking. If I were
to come back, would be like my mom and Dad's home,
in the way of how did I ever think this
was so large? As it happened to you. You go
back to a school, you go back to a business
or a place that you just called your own, and
upon returning, it looks so much smaller than what you
envisioned or experienced when it became a major part of
the chapters that you write. And as I make my
way up this hill, I can't help but think that
that in my eyes and heart, heartbreak Hill is this
huge mountain. It is this glorious place where I can
get to the top of the world here and look
at the hawks. I can see the lake, I can
see the stream, I can see the skies if I'm
in Montana, which is Big Sky Country. But let me
tell you, there ain't nothing like Big Sky Country Montana.
But that's the thing about it. In everything that we
do and the personal places that we walk, truly get
into it, if by way of creativity and or just
to release ourselves from an everyday world that is filled
with so much uncertainty, the things that we see as
been huge, out of control. Big. Oh, the world is
going to come here with their skateboards all the hikers
and of course the bicyclist. If I were to leave,
which I hope I do not. If I were to
leave and I came back ten twenty years later, would
I feel the same, Would the writing change? Would it
be a smaller world? Hey, thanks for being a part
of a conversation.