Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / Forest Stories Episode One Hundred Forty Four A Single Drop Of Rain

Transcript

Forest Stories Episode One Hundred Forty Four A Single Drop Of Rain · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, when it comes to podcast 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 four stories,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: be it rock star stories, talking with a chef, whatever
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: you're looking for. That's what arrow.net is all about. A-R-R-O-E.net.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: The searching is over. It's all in one place. Enjoy
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the exploration. Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Four Stories. A series of short-winded adventures within
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: a collection of skyscraping trees stuck feet first in Georgia
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: clay right here in Carolina. It's been a huge part
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: of my daily journey for over 33 years. I am
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: the poet in the forest, a children's series written and
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: recorded in the 1990s. It's grown into multiple podcasts that
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: now reach around the world, and none of it would
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: be possible without this forest right here in South Charlotte,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: North Carolina. At the base of Heartbreak Hill sits a
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: sign that reads, RAINBOW FOREST. Well, it's time you get
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: to meet what's inspired several generations. Long before the paved
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: paths decorated with colorful homes colonized around this beautiful lake,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: slow-moving stream, flatland swamps, and array of natural animals, there
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: were families and business owners who are said to have
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: raced into this area for the beauty of the land,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: wild roses, migratory birds, and wild grapevines. Those before me
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: either forgot to write about it, or it's buried somewhere
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: inside their family tree. Hey, thanks for being a part
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: of the conversation. Welcome back to the forest. Could this
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: be the ending of our worst drought since 2008? It's
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: presently 2026 where I stand. I don't know where you stand.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: I don't even know if this forest stands by the
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: time you meet the stories that become the forest stories.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: But this drought has been the worst in 18 years.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: And then today, everything was drawn to a close because
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: it's like, wait a second. We can't go through the
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: forest on our daily walk to check in with the
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: trees to see if the beekeeper is still selling honey,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: to look at the ground for the bumbly bees, as
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: well as to stare into the sky at the wild
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Canadian geese, as well as the ducks and the owls
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: and the blue cranes that... Love to just stand there
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: and take in life. And I often wonder, what is
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: that life like when the only thing that you have
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: to do is show up lakeside and put your feet
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: first into the mud of a lake that no human
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: being goes into? Well, because it's protected, this lake, because
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: of its nature, as well as the human beings around it,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: don't want outsiders to come in and fish it up
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: and bring damage to it. Because, you know, that's just
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: about part of the ecology of what this place is,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: which is a tiny forest with a tiny lake, with
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: a tiny slow-moving stream. And the thing about it is, though,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: is that through a poet's words, it looks bigger than life.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Everything looks bigger in life through the power of the
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: writing instrument. And yet, what that poet receives, a day
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: of rain. the drought could be coming to an end
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: is so empowering that the poet sits here and wants
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: to watch and document every single drop that not only
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: falls from the carolina gray sky but that that is
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: swiftly moving into the drains so that it will end
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: up in lake ivy so it will make its way
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: to a nearby stream then it becomes a river to
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: the ocean boy i'm just taking this too far aren't
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: i But it always has been a dream for this
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: poet inside of me to wonder if a single drop
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: of rain at the beginning of a rain season, ending
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: an 18-year drought, if that single drop of rain will
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: make it to an ocean. And can we ever be
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: there to celebrate it with them? Hey, thanks for being
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: a part of the conversation.