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Speaker 1: Hey, when it comes to podcasts listening, are you like me?

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I mean, it's like television surfing. You're like all over

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the place looking for that one thing that you can

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add to your moment of now. Be it forest stories,

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be it rockstar stories, talking with a chef, whatever you're

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looking for. That's what ero dot net is all about.

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Arrooe dot net. The searching is over. It's all in

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one place. Enjoy the exploration. Hey, thanks for being a

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part of the conversation. Welcome to Forest Stories, a series

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of short winded adventures within a collection of skyscraping trees,

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stuck feet first and Georgia Clay right here in Carolina.

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It's been a huge part of my daily journey for

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over thirty three years. I Am the Poet in the Forest,

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a children's series written and recorded in the nineteen nineties.

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It's grown into multiple podcasts that now reach around the world,

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and none of it would be possible without this forest

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right here in South Charlotte, North Carolina, at the base

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of Heartbreak Hills. It's a sign that reads Rainbow Forest. Well,

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it's time you get to meet what's inspired several generations

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long before the paved paths decorated with colorful homes colonized

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around this beautiful lake, slow moving stream, flatland swamps, and

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array of natural animals. There were families and business owners

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who are said to have raised into this area for

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the beauty of the land, wild roses, migratory birds, and

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wild grapevines. Those before me either forgot to write about

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it or it's buried somewhere inside their family tree. Hey,

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thanks for being a part of the conversation.

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Speaker 2: Welcome back to the forest. It is so cold, so

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snowylike inside this collection of trees that you just wish

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it would start snowing. It's almost like I feel a

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headache coming on, but it won't take over. Or when

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someone says I think I'm coming down with a cold,

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and then a week or two later you're still in

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that mode of I feel like I'm in the mode

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of a cold, but I don't have a cold. That's

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how it feels inside this forest today. The sky is

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a snowy gray, the air is a frigid snowy day.

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Even the lake isn't waving at me today. It's just

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sitting there still, as if to be saying you don't

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see me human. I am invisible. I want you to

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think about what could be a snowy day inside this forest.

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And I'll tell you what. In my thirty three years

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and being in this forest, we have seen our fair

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share of southern snowstorms. I think one of the biggest

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ones we got fourteen to seventeen inches of snow. We

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literally stopped. But do you think that we did stop

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not our lifestyle, No no, no, no, because we both

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serve the community. We both do things that are all

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about serving people. And I remember being with this major

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broadcast company. They sent the US Army to my house

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in a humbie to pick me up in those four

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thirteen inches of snow. I was sitting there very patiently

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waiting for them, and down the road comes the US

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Army coming to get me to take me to the

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radio station. Because listen, when you're in the broadcast industry,

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when it comes to fourteen to seventeen inches of snow,

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a tornado, or airplanes hitting buildings, when you're called to

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the front line to be a broadcaster, to be a journalist,

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to be whatever, when it comes to the realms of

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what radio and broadcasting really are, and something like a cold,

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frigid day doesn't get in the way, but it's cold.

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And with this cold today comes a lot of memories

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of all the times that I walked through the snow

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with my fuzzy little Maltese. We had five Maltese at

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one time, those fuzzy little white monkeys running all over

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the place with their cute little barks, and that would

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go to the Chinese crusted. We had two Sammy Sophia

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and with no hair on their bodies, being out here

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in the snow. Oh my god, I felt so guilty.

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I felt like I was abusing them. But yet Sammy

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just loved it. Sammy was just always one hundred and

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four plus degrees and he loved it. And then now

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with Jazzy May out here inside this forest, she and

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I have gotten deeper into these trees. And I think

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that right there in itself says a lot about the

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true spirituality of this forest. It's almost as if the trees,

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the tall grass, the slow moving stream, even Heartbreak Hill

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as well as as well as Ivy Lake are just

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softly whispering today, almost like my blue crown conyer Ernie.

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When he is very content, he doesn't make loud noises.

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He just has this humming in his voice, and that's

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what I feel today. The ground is damp. I'm not

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saying there's not moisture here, but it's not coming across

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as snow like my mind is saying it should snowing.

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It feels, it smells. Everything about this moment of now

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says snow, But it's not glowing that unbelievable color of white,

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the innocence before the human and this dog named Jazzy

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walked through that snow with dirty ass feet. Thanks for

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being a part of the conversation.