Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / Forest Stories Episode One Hundred Forty Eight The Continuation

Transcript

Forest Stories Episode One Hundred Forty Eight The Continuation · 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. It's got to be one of the
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: greatest relationships I've ever had. This connection that I have
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: with Jazzy, the disaster artist. And I say that because
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: of the first six months that we've had her in
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: our life, which was way back in 2018. I mean,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: we have always rescued dogs. We've just never rescued one
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: like this. And I just envisioned that she would find
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: this amazing piece and just a great place to take
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: walks and runs and to investigate and to research and
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: to do all of this stuff. But I didn't think
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: that it was going to come with the six-month challenge
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: that it did in the very beginning, which was completely, 100%,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: destroy everything that was my normal. And God, I mean,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: it was a really bad place. And I'll never forget
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: sitting in this forest with Jazzy out on the bridge,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: the very bridge where... I've said so long to so
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: many of my beautiful children. I wasn't there to say
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: so long to Jazzy. My conversation with Jazzy out there
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: in the forest that day was based on one thing.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Teach me. Teach me everything you know. Teach me about you.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Teach me about why you are you. Teach me why
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: you just destroyed my house. Teach me why you took
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: out the door. Teach me everything. Teach me anything to
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: help me in understanding who you are. And do you realize,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: for the past eight years, that relationship has expanded into
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: one of the greatest journeys that I've ever written about
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: in my daily writing and talked about inside my podcast.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: And then today, and this is the proof of this relationship,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: my little girl knows me. She knows me and she
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: knows that I love all living things. And that when
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: we're walking through this forest, That what happens is, is
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: that that connection between her and I builds into something
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: where she goes, Dad, I think this is something you
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: should know about. And I didn't see it with my
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: naked eye, but she did, because I trusted her. And
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the thing is, is that in developing that relationship of trust,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: then her instincts had to become my instincts. And today
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: was one of those days where her instincts of knowing
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: how much I love animals... really kind of paid off
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: because I was introduced to a bird a bird that
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: had fallen fallen where from the tree from the sky
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: from the universe from something that was beyond me and
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: yet Jazzy was the one who found this bird now
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: through Native American spirituality and all forms of living and
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: loving all living things you don't just let it lay
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: there to the openness of the way of the world
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: no you have a a ceremony You celebrate its life.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: You thank God. You thank the universe. You thank whatever
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: it is that put that bird's song in motion. And
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: you give it that opportunity to grow into the next life.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: I do believe in reincarnation, but that has nothing to
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: do with this story. But it is a part of
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the process of a budding and building relationship. A dog
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: whose early day walks with us was completely a living, breathing,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: very costly nightmare. And then eight years later, we're in
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: this forest and she looks up at me and says, Daddy,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: I got something here. You know what to do. Yeah,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: we're going to share it. We're going to continue with
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: the transition. Celebrating life in this forest. Thanks for being
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: a part of the conversation.