Are you ready to meditate with Kari?
Are you ready to be so,
So still and quiet in your bed to let the world just disappear around you?
Soften your muscles,
Soften your bones and completely relax.
Take a nice big deep breath all the way down to the base of your abdomen and when you blow out your breath,
Blow it out as if you're blowing out a big balloon there in front of your face.
Again,
A nice big deep breath in and then the biggest blow out so you blow out all of the air inside of your tummy and your lungs.
Very good.
And then allow your breathing to just fall back into a normal rhythm so you can listen and relax.
Stephanie needed a change.
She needed a change that was her choice.
It felt like everything lately was changing.
The way she did school was changing.
Her parents were shifting and changing.
Her body was changing.
It was easy to feel like everything felt out of her control.
What if she didn't want to change her body?
What if she didn't want to get taller?
What if she didn't want to change from where she was at?
What if she didn't want her parents to change?
What if she didn't want school to change?
Sometimes she wanted to just sit and cry and have things be exactly the way they used to be.
Surrounded by her friends in the classroom,
Doing school the regular way,
Playing with her friends after school,
Going to the movies,
Going out for dinner with her mum and her dad.
There were so many things that Stephanie missed.
Life is different.
And today she was in that kind of mood where she was a little bit annoyed by the world.
And that's okay.
Stephanie was walking home from just having a walk around the park.
Sometimes when she was feeling very annoyed or very frustrated or very angry,
She liked to walk.
On her way home from the walk there was a bench and sometimes she liked to sit down on the bench.
And she was frustrated.
She was thinking about what she could change,
What she could control,
How she could make things different,
Her way,
On her terms,
What she wanted.
The frustration was building in her body and she could feel her hands tightening.
She could feel her shoulders pulling up closer to her ears as if she was all tense inside.
She didn't like it.
She wanted to feel good inside of her body,
Not tight and angry and upset and frustrated.
It was time to go see her friends.
Maybe they could help with change.
She needed something new,
Something magical,
Even more magical than the magic she already got when she went to Moonbow Forest.
She took her wallet from her back pocket of her jeans.
She opened up the special compartment where she keeps her magical earrings.
She reached in,
Took them out and one by one put the earrings on.
She sat down on her bench.
She knew she needed to calm down,
To surrender into the magic otherwise it wouldn't happen.
She closed her eyes and took a big deep breath.
She took another big deep breath.
Every breath that she took she could feel her body shifting.
Her hands got soft,
Her shoulders relaxed.
She let go of the frustration,
Just blew it out of her body with her breath and it happened.
She heard the crackles and the pops.
She felt the tingles in her body and the shift in her energy.
She knew these feelings so well by now.
She sank and relaxed even deeper into the bench,
Really,
Really surrendered.
And there the curtain was,
Right in front of her face.
The third eye,
Her inner sight,
Could see the curtain as plain as day.
She pulled it back and stepped into a whole other world.
She felt the grass of the forest,
The soft earth underneath her feet.
She took a big deep breath in and smelled the trees,
The bushes.
It smelled lush and fresh and clean.
Oh,
How she loved that smell.
It was like she was coming home.
The smell was like baking bread or a cake cooking in the oven.
One of those smells that reminds you of happiness,
Of home,
Of being safe,
Of being loved.
She felt all of those feelings rush through her body,
Rush through her veins as she stepped into Moonbow Forest.
She took a look around,
Looked over to her left,
Saw many trees,
Tall,
Strong,
All different colored greens.
She looked over to her right again,
Tree after tree after tree,
And they all seemed to be saying,
Welcome back,
Stephanie.
We've missed you.
Welcome home.
They swayed in the wind.
And as the wind blow through the leaves on the branches,
She could smell all the different scents,
All the different flavors from each tree.
The chocolate trees,
The strawberry flakes,
The pizza hill.
She could smell it all.
She looked straight forward and noticed some of her friends.
Luna was right there.
Today,
Luna was standing with Chestnut,
Lily Pad,
And Rusty,
Some of the other unicorns there in Moonbow Forest.
They heard her instantly as she cracked some of the branches and little twigs underneath her feet,
Walking forward.
They looked up,
Each one of them smiling.
Luna rushed towards her.
Hello,
My dear friend.
She nudged her nose on the end,
The very tip of Stephanie's nose.
They rubbed faces and hugged.
It was a good hug.
It was a deep,
Loving hug,
One that she needed so badly.
She pulled away and looked into Luna's eyes and they connected.
Not just like looking at somebody.
When she looked at Luna and the other unicorns here in Moonbow Forest,
She felt that they could see her soul deep inside of her,
To all of the corners of her mind.
The back shelves,
The dusty shelves,
The part of her mind that she kept in a box that she didn't want anyone to know about.
Luna and the other unicorns saw everything,
And all that they gave was love.
Love and acceptance was all that Stephanie ever saw in any of the unicorns' eyes when they connected the way that they do.
Luna knew instantly something wasn't right with Stephanie.
She called over Chestnut and Lilypad and Rusty and they all stood around in a circle,
Like some kind of ritual,
With Stephanie standing in the middle.
They all placed their noses on her,
As if when that happened,
An electric current went through all four of the unicorns,
Including Stephanie.
And that electric current was like a download of information between each one of them.
Just like that,
They all read what was going on with Stephanie.
No words needed.
It was like magic.
Chestnut said,
So,
You've come to see something new.
Lilypad said,
It's time for a change.
At the same time,
Luna and Rusty said,
Maybe it's time for you to see Mumbo Oceanside.
Stephanie's eyes lit up.
She'd not been there before.
All the times that she'd visited Mumbo Forest,
She'd never seen Oceanside.
They all felt her excitement.
Stephanie said,
Can I go there now?
I need this.
I need to feel like I'm in control for a change.
I need to feel that the change that I'm experiencing here is my choice.
Can we go there now?
Luna said,
Climb on my back.
It's quite far.
We'll all go together.
Stephanie climbed on the back of Luna,
And in just a few seconds they were up,
All of them,
Up in the air,
Flying above the forest.
Stephanie held on tight to Luna's mane.
She wrapped it around her knuckles and looked down below.
Everything was shifting and moving so fast.
It felt like her world back home.
She tried to slow it down.
She tried to just focus on one tree up ahead and slow down how fast everything was moving,
But it was impossible.
The unicorns were flying so fast,
Magically fast.
They were in a rush to get to Mumbo Oceanside to help Stephanie feel better about the world.
Stephanie could see unicorn after unicorn after unicorn down below,
Like blips on the earth.
There and then gone.
There and then gone.
She decided to just look straight forward.
She was feeling a little bit dizzy.
The air smelled different.
She could smell the ocean.
The ocean smelled so good.
It had been so many years since she'd been to the ocean.
She loved the beach,
The sand between her toes.
She loved the sound of the waves.
Whenever she would sit on the beach and just look out at the ocean,
She always felt good,
Like the waves were talking to her,
Calling her home.
She was very excited.
She could feel the butterflies in her tummy.
Her body started to get all itchy and excited and bubbly.
And then she saw it.
The sun was shining down on the water and it looked so blue and so fresh and clean.
All four of the unicorns changed direction and started heading at full speed towards the water.
Luna turned her head slightly and said,
Hold on,
Hold on really tight.
Rusty shouted,
Trust us.
And just like that,
They hit the ocean at full speed.
Stephanie automatically closed her eyes like you would when you think you're going to hit your face on something or your body on something.
She prepared herself for the crash.
She didn't understand why they were doing this.
Panic just burst up from her tummy into her throat.
Her whole body went tight,
Ready for the impact,
But she didn't feel a thing.
She opened her eyes.
She was in the ocean,
Under the water.
The unicorns were just gliding through the depths of the ocean like they were made for it.
Like mermaids,
Whales and dolphins and sharks and all of those things that you think belong in the ocean.
You would never think a unicorn could do that.
But this is Moonbow Forest.
This was no ordinary place.
Stephanie quickly noticed she could breathe.
She could breathe under the water,
In the ocean.
This was crazy.
She could see everything.
The water,
The salt wasn't stinging her eyes.
It was like it was second nature.
Like she was a mermaid all along or something and she just didn't realize.
But when she looked down at her legs,
She still had legs.
She didn't have a tail or anything.
She wasn't a mermaid.
She was Stephanie.
But she was Stephanie in a different world.
The things she saw,
The corals were so bright,
All different colors.
At one point Luna swam towards a coral.
She turned around and said,
Pick it.
Eat it.
Stephanie did exactly what she was told.
It felt like this is what she was supposed to do.
She tasted the coral.
She picked a pink one and it tasted just like pink lemonade.
Luna said,
Pick one.
Part of all the different colors.
Try them all.
They're so delicious.
Stephanie grabbed at all the different colors.
The green one,
The blue one,
The yellow one,
The orange one,
The purple one.
She was right.
Each one had a different flavor.
Here at Moonbow Oceanside,
You can eat the coral.
How cool.
All the tiny little fishes looked like tropical fish.
Some with stripes,
Some with stars,
Some with dots,
Some with smiley faces.
They saw so many different creatures.
Creatures that she'd never seen before.
She'd watched plenty of ocean programs.
But some of these creatures didn't look real.
They looked prehistoric.
Except they were from another place.
Which,
Of course,
They were.
All the fish talked.
They all knew who Stephanie was.
They all introduced themselves.
Fish after strange looking fish,
After strange looking fish again.
There were so many different things down there underneath the ocean.
So many things that Stephanie tried to remember all of them.
All of them so that she could tell everyone all about it.
She looked at Chestnut and Lilypad,
Who were flying,
At this point swimming,
Right next to Luna.
Stephanie said,
Can I come back here again?
There's so many things I see that I want to go and explore.
You can come back here any time you want,
Said Lilypad.
Now that you've been here once,
You can come back here in your mind whenever you need to,
Stephanie.
You're welcome here at Moonbow Oceanside to come and explore the magic.
This that we've shown you is just a blip,
A tiny little speck of the fun that you will see and experience down here.
But for now,
This is good enough.
Luna said,
We don't want to overwhelm you Stephanie,
But this world down here is even more expansive and magical than the forest up above.
But you're ready,
Said Luna.
You've changed,
Said Luna.
You're ready for this.
It's a whole other world.
Stephanie was so happy.
She just enjoyed the feelings and the sensations as Luna and the other unicorns glided so beautifully through the sea,
The water,
The fish,
The corals,
All the other creatures.
There were buildings down there.
The buildings looked like they were made of crystal.
There was big giant holes at the bottom of the ocean like they led to somewhere secret.
And she knew that you could go in them because certain creatures were swimming into them and they'd just disappear into the depths and the darkness.
It's very mystical and magical.
There were so many things to see,
So many things to explore.
She felt like she was going to burst.
Luna was right,
One step at a time.
For now,
Let's just swim.
Stephanie's tummy was full of all the different flavored corals.
She felt sleepy inside.
She felt safe,
Warm,
Comfortable in her body.
She'd not felt like that for so long.
She didn't realize that she closed her eyes.
She didn't realize that she'd fell asleep on the back of Luna as they swam the deepest parts of the ocean.
She didn't realize anything until she felt the urge to open her eyes.
When she looked around,
She was back on the bench,
Not far from where she lived.
She felt so much better.
Like when you've eaten a nice meal and you've been really hungry,
Or when you take a nap when you're so tired,
Or when you have a hug when you feel like you need one.
You always feel better.
She felt better.
She reached up and took off her earrings and put them back in her wallet.
She put the wallet back in her jean pocket.
And as she walked the rest of the way home,
She felt like she'd been recharged like a battery.
She could keep going.
She could handle the change.
Bring it on,
World,
Stephanie said out loud.
Bring on the change.
And ready for it.
The end.
