Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation. This
is Forest Stories. I am the Poet in the Forest,
a children's series that I pinned out in the nineteen nineties. Now,
none of it would be possible if it wasn't for
this forest right here in South Charlotte, North Carolina. I
talk about it so much that I thought maybe it's
time that you get to know what has inspired me
for thirty years. Thanks for being a part of the conversation.
Welcome back to the forest. A beautiful fall day in
this forest. The wind pretty strong, pretty strong. That means
there's a lot of leaves that are dancing right now.
I call that the final dance. These leaves blossom and
stretch out in the spring months, spreading pallen all over
the place, and then by the time faul gets here,
then they take that dance. It's got a calling. The
trees calling is it's got to go down and feed
Mother Earth. It's got to create warmth for animals that
may need it, such as the squirrel up in the tree.
These trees with their dance, some of them so elegant,
others looks like a leaf is crashing. But you kind
of laugh about it. And you move forward with it
is what you do. But I learned something about the
tree today that's very touching. I've always said that I
love my trees. I've been with them since nineteen ninety two.
I really put a lot of love with the trees.
A tree doesn't love us, which shocked me. If I'm
sharing so much love with these trees, why doesn't it
love me back? So I kept reading What a tree does.
It embraces your touch, It can feel your touch. A
tree uses its senses to speak with other living plants.
They take care of each other. They communicate in ways
that the human being has to use words, but not
a tree, not the other living things. They have their
own language, and they take care of each other. The
fascinating thing about it is is that a tree is
said to have a pulse, but it doesn't have a heart.
How can it have a pulse? A tree shares that pulse.
So when I take these walks inside this forest, I
feel that pulse. These trees are communicating with me. It
doesn't have to be about Hey, I love you, It's
about protecting each other. Hey, thanks for being a part
of the conversation.