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. Wow, what a story we have in
front of us here, one that you would like to write.
But I spend so much time saying, don't write a
story before it happens. And yet you want to write
this story because you want to document something before it happens.
When the weather guys say what has headed our way
could be catastrophic, you stop, you look around, and you listen.
This entire past week, I've spent all my time studying
the animals, watching the deer. Are they laying down? What
are the cardinals doing? Are the squirrels packing things up
and making their homes safer, stronger against winds? The cold
that has actually just headed on his way here? What
about the snow? The rain, and how about this even
the ice that's coming this direction. And that's where they're
saying it's gonna be catastrophic because it could be three
quarters of an inch thick, which could bring down a
lot of these trees as well as our power line.
Catastrophic that's their word inside this forest today. And so
we're on this trail today walking through the forest very quiet.
It's almost like the squirrels have said, I'm going inside.
Where are the deer? I don't even see them laying around?
Where's the hawk? Where's the owl? Where are my forest friends?
You know? I see sparrows here and there. I see
the wild finches here and there. I took out a
ton of food so that they could eat it off
the forest floor today, But in doing so, I had
to remind myself that right now, if it starts raining,
then it isn't anything. It's just a bunch of mush.
And I don't see any of these animals eating mush.
Catastrophic is the word inside the forest today. We are
literally maybe maybe less than ten hours away from this
journey beginning, and you can't help but wonder is it
gonna be? We've had that before with tropical storms and
hurricanes and torrential swollen streams and big lakes that feel
like they want to take over your life and redesign
the entire process and path of the journey of this forest.
But then you remind yourself, this forest is all one
hundred percent nature made. This is not Low's, this is
not home depot the word catastrophic. This forest knows that.
And the thing about it is this forest is saying, Okay,
we've got this humen. Oh, you had to throw that in.
Huh oh hugh Amen. Hey, thanks for being a part
of the conversation.