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Forest Stories Episode One Hundred Thirty Nine The Meadows Where Are The Children · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, when it comes to podcasts listening, are you like me?
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's like television surfing. You're like all over
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the place looking for that one thing that you can
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: add to your moment of now. Be it fest stories,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: be it rockstar stories, talking with a chef, whatever you're
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: looking for. That's what aro dot net is all about.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Arrooe dot net. The searching is over. It's all in
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  Speaker 1: one place. Enjoy the exploration. Hey, thanks for being a
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: part of the conversation. Welcome to foest Stories, a series
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: of short winded adventures within a collection of skyscraping trees,
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  Speaker 1: stuck feet First and Georgia Clay right here in Carolina.
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  Speaker 1: It's been a huge part of my daily journey for
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  Speaker 1: over thirty three years. I Am the Poet in the Forest,
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  Speaker 1: a children's series written and recorded in the nineteen nineties.
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  Speaker 1: It's grown into multiple podcasts that now reach around the world,
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  Speaker 1: and none of it would be possible without this forest
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  Speaker 1: right here in South Charlotte, North Carolina, at the base
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  Speaker 1: of Heartbreak Hills. It's a sign that reads Rainbow Forest. Well,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: it's time you get to meet what's inspired several generations
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  Speaker 1: long before the paved paths decorated with colorful homes colonized
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  Speaker 1: around this beautiful lake, slow moving stream, flatland, swamps, and
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  Speaker 1: array of natural animals. There were families and business owners
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  Speaker 1: who are said to have raced into this area for
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  Speaker 1: the beauty of the land, wild roses, migratory birds, and
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  Speaker 1: wild grapevines. Those before me either forgot to write about
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  Speaker 1: it or it's buried somewhere inside their family tree. Hey,
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  Speaker 1: thanks for being a part of the conversation. Welcome back
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: to the forest.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: In all my chapters that I've written about shared conversations
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: about this forest, I've talked about the paths. I've talked
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  Speaker 2: about the lake, the stream, heartbreak hill of all things.
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  Speaker 2: But rarely have I ever put focus on the meadows.
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  Speaker 2: The meadows that are associated with a forest. There's always
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  Speaker 2: that one little area that doesn't get the blessing of
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  Speaker 2: all of the trees with their long stretching limbs and
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: leaves that fall every fall and they spring every spring,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: the meadows inside this forest. And for some reason today,
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  Speaker 2: while in the forest, I didn't just see that vast
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  Speaker 2: array of openness, the green on the grass, the leaves
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  Speaker 2: around it, but not in it. But what I did
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  Speaker 2: see was my childhood. I didn't understand because as my
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  Speaker 2: family was growing together, the young kids were becoming teens
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  Speaker 2: who then grew into a pair of adult shoes. We
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  Speaker 2: would stand inside so many meadows near forest and play
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  Speaker 2: baseball with football. We would play kickball tag, We would
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  Speaker 2: play hide and go seek. We would do so many
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  Speaker 2: things as a family inside the meadow connected to a forest.
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  Speaker 2: And yet in my thirty four years inside this forest
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  Speaker 2: until today, never once did I ever think about the
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  Speaker 2: meadow with my family, laughing, giggling. Eight track tape players
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  Speaker 2: that had big D batteries. He'd get maybe one eight
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  Speaker 2: track in and then the batteries would be dead. But
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: it didn't matter, because if we were playing kickball or
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: baseball or frozen tag, it wasn't the music we were
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  Speaker 2: listening for. It was the laughter, the shouting, the togetherness,
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: and we would always do it inside the meadow. But
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: today I had this vision of playing home run derby
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  Speaker 2: with my brothers Teddy and Terry. There's no basketball court here,
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  Speaker 2: so I couldn't invite Danny or my other brother Terry. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: two Terris in one family, how is that even possible? Well,
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  Speaker 2: obviously something happened in the meadow because it convinced them
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  Speaker 2: to give us two terries. But the things that happen
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: inside a meadow, and where are the kids today when
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  Speaker 2: it comes to something so large, so open, so free
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  Speaker 2: to explore. You don't see the whiffleball tournaments, the home
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  Speaker 2: run derbies, the quick rushes to first base, hurry up
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  Speaker 2: and get the third. Who's going to win this game?
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  Speaker 2: And which neighbor in this forest is going to be
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  Speaker 2: pissed off the most because they just don't want to
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  Speaker 2: deal with the noise. These medals I speak of, they've
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  Speaker 2: been here all thirty four years, and they will reach
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  Speaker 2: well beyond my ears. But I do wonder will the
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  Speaker 2: children ever come back to play? Hey, thanks for being
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  Speaker 2: a part of the conversation.