Speaker 1: 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,
sits 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. This week, the Writer's
Canvas unveils the shaping of a new season called Fall.
Welcome back to the forest. Fifty six degrees, sunshine, breezy.
Inside this forest, the birds are in full flight, their
plain in the sky. That's what I love about windy days.
Birds they don't need that wing power. They just want
to soar. They want to have a roller coaster adventures
what they want to do on a very chilly, chilly
fall day inside a forest, a collection of trees, even
the ripples on the lake. It's just so strange that
as we go into the fall months, how the surface
of the water changes. It's not like the deeper colors
where you probably have more algae in the water during
the summer months because of the heat. But as the
cooler weather sets in, that algae kind of, you know,
dies off and the water changes, and it's very interesting
how it becomes kind of a glassy feeling. It's almost
like a movie scene, something from Disney them. You know,
you're waiting for the animated characters to come out there
and go hi ho, hi ho. It's off to the
like we go. But that's just what's so fun about
the daily walk through a forest is that you fall
witness to all the beauty of change, because you know
what they're evolving right now, they're going to go into
a dormant period. All things in this forest are going
to go to sleep. They're gonna rest. They're going to
get ready for a brand new spring season and that
whatever the fruit is that they bring forward, it's going
to be something special. But they've got to have that
rest first. Whereas the human is always on the go,
always on the move, a lot of people will look
at me kind of strange out here in this forest
because I don't have any socks on, I've got shorts on,
I've got a very thin T shirt on fifty six degrees.
What they never ask me is, so why are you
out here and you don't even have a coat on.
You don't even have a hat on or gloves. Being
this chili here in the South with the humidity makes
it cold to the bone, as we call it. And
the thing is is that there's a reason there really is.
It's called conditioning. It's what I learned up in Montana
growing up, is that if you're going to get ready
for a twenty four below zero day in Montana. It
doesn't start on the day that it's eighteen below. It
starts in the weeks and the months far ahead, where
you get outside without the jacket. You go out there
and you toughen up the skin, and you toughen up
the attitude. Now, if it were to suddenly be ninety
degrees tomorrow, would I freak out? Probably because I'm getting
used to the cooler weather, and I'm not freaking out
in the way of saying, oh my god, it's so cold.
And I think what helps ease the pain and the
pressure is the fact that you can sit here and
watch the osprey, the hawks, and all the other birds
that are starting to migrate into this area, and so
you don't worry about anything that's about you know that's
going to get in the way of the natural beauty.
I mean, just because we've man made everything that seems
to be outside this forest with our little fiber optics
when it comes to the internet and lights that turn
on when the sun goes down. But if you take
the time to walk through a city park, through a
city's downtown area where they do have a lot of
trees these days, take the time to watch the seasons
change you're going to learn more about you the human being.
Then you're going to learn about everything else that you
see on your social media and on your television set.
And the reason why is because nature doesn't lie. Nature
speaks the truth and the way of saying you either
need to get prepared for the change that's coming our
way or you can complain. The choice is all yours.
And that's what I learned from this. For us, it's
such a great teaching tool and as a listener as
well as a student, my goal is to find my
way through the thick and the thin. Hey, thanks for
being a part of the conversation.