Are you ready to meditate with Kari?
Make sure that you're laying down in your bed so that you can relax your body and get comfortable as you listen to the story.
Try and stay as still as you possibly can.
Slow down your breathing,
That way your body can start to slow down as well.
Your mind can slow down as well.
And maybe you'll fall to sleep.
It was a beautiful summer's day in the middle of June.
Walking down the boardwalk,
You could see that people were happy just because the sun was shining.
It's funny how,
When the sun shines,
People seem to be in much better moods.
You feel in a good mood.
Your heart feels happy.
Your body feels good.
It's a beautiful day,
What's not to be happy about?
When you were heading to the tide pools,
You could already hear the sounds of the water,
The ocean.
You knew you weren't far away.
Looking up at the sky,
You see it's the most beautiful pale blue.
There's the odd cloud here and there.
And the sun is that kind of sun that isn't too strong.
You can look at the sun and not hurt your eyes.
As you stare at the sky for just a few seconds before you have to look where you're walking,
You take in a nice big deep breath and feel your shoulders relaxing,
Starting to get excited about going to the tide pools.
Feeling the sand on your bare feet,
The cool crisp ocean around your toes.
You smile at a couple of people that walk by and then you take a couple of steps down off the boardwalk onto the beach.
Heading left in your direction towards the tide pools.
There's lots of people on the beach because it's such a beautiful day,
But you're not heading to the beach.
You're heading to the tide pools.
You're excited to see if you can see any creatures in them today.
Maybe you'll go walk on the beach later,
But for now,
Just feeling the sand underneath your feet squishing through your toes as you head in the direction over to the tide pools.
That's enough of the beach.
That's all you need.
The tide pool area is like a flat rock with divots and holes and cracks.
It's part of a big rock that goes up a hill and at the right time of day,
The waves come up and over and completely cover the tide pools.
And then when they pull back out,
The tide pools are left full,
Full of the ocean and all of the creatures.
There's a couple of people walking around the different holes and crivets in the tide pool.
There's a man and a woman and there's a couple of kids.
There's a dad with a small child in his arms holding a lead with a dog on it.
No one's really paying attention to you,
They're paying attention to everything that they can find,
All the mysteries and surprises that are living in the tide pools.
Carry in your flip flops and a water bottle.
You make your way to the first hole that you find.
You've got your sunglasses on and the sunglasses make it too dark.
So you push the sunglasses back away from your eyes up onto your head and now it's brighter.
And you can see perfectly in the hole.
The water is clear,
Sparkling,
The sunlight shining down on the tide pools and it makes the water look so very clear.
You get down onto the ground,
Resting on your knees and peer into the hole close up so you can see better.
There doesn't seem to be anything in this hole.
There's lots of different crevices and dips and deeper holes in the tide pool hole.
So you have to get really close to watch and be still and quiet and just watch.
After a few moments,
A tiny little crab comes out of one of the holes at the bottom and shuffles sideways across the rock and then just as quickly disappears into another tiny little hole.
You stand up and move,
Going to look for another hole.
You find a big hole in the rock and this time you sit down on your bum right next to the hole,
Planning on staying there for a while,
Watching patiently to see what you can see.
Very quickly you spot a starfish.
The excitement that you feel from seeing a starfish kind of makes your tummy flip.
It's very exciting and you have the biggest smile on your face.
The starfish is white,
Quite small,
But it's beautiful and if the water stills,
You can see the tiny little spikes all over it.
It's not moving around at all,
It's just there on the rock underneath the water.
This tide pool has lots of little crabs in it and there's quite a big crab.
It's big enough to be able to notice its pincers moving in and out on its front claws.
The crab is like a pinky-orangey colour,
Also undertones of grey.
You've eaten crab before and you wonder if this is the type of crabs that people eat.
You don't want to eat this crab,
You want to watch it and enjoy it playing in the tide pool.
There's even some tiny,
Tiny little fishes in this pool.
They're the tiny ones,
The ones that you would see turtles eat if you went to a pond or something like that.
The ones that make the tiny little ripples on the top of the water.
There was five of them,
Because you counted them.
There were seven crabs,
Including the big giant one,
And one starfish.
One pearly white starfish.
The sun seems to be getting a little bit warmer and you're grateful that you put your sunscreen on and that you're wearing your sun hat.
You've got shorts and a t-shirt on so it's not too uncomfortably hot and there's a nice beach breeze coming from the ocean that feels good on your skin and your face.
Looking away from the tide pool for a moment,
You see that the father with the small child has put her down on the ground.
She's splashing around in one of the tide pools.
Her dad tells her not to do that,
To be careful,
To not hurt any of the creatures in there.
And then she very curiously stops splashing with her hand and peers into the water.
You assume that she sees something because her dad is pointing to something in there and the little girl looks very excited about it.
She instantly reaches into the water to grab hold of it and her dad stops her with a big smile.
No,
No,
We don't disturb them,
He says.
She's got tiny little toes,
You can see them through her white sandals and she's wearing a white sun hat and a pretty white sundress.
She must only be about two,
Two or three.
Her little toes look so tiny and fat and cute.
You look back down at your tide pool and decide it's time to go to look at a different one.
You walk past the dad with the little girl and the dog starts to wag its tail at you.
Is it okay if I stroke your dog?
The dad says,
Yes,
Of course,
He's very friendly.
Reaching down you stroke between the dog's ears and the dog sniffs at your hand and wags its tail even bigger.
You stay there for a minute just fussing on the dog,
Smiling at the little girl.
She looks up and says hi and she has the cutest face and bright pink cheeks.
You say hi back and then say goodbye.
You're heading further away from where everyone is.
You've spotted where you want to go.
It's a quiet place but you can see that there's a big hole.
As you walk over to the hole,
Getting closer and closer,
You notice that the rocks beneath your feet can be quite slippy in places so you have to be careful.
Some parts of the rocks are covered in seaweed.
When you get to the hole that you're heading for,
You sit down on the ground next to it and notice there's a big clump of seaweed in that hole.
Reaching in,
You grab a hold of the big clump of seaweed and take it out and put it next to the pool.
There is so much going on in this hole.
There looks like sea barnacles on the rocks.
Lots and lots of them.
Very tiny.
They look like little mussels.
Some of them are closed and some of them are open.
There's seaweed down at the bottom just kind of moving around with the movement of the water and there's the biggest crab that you've seen ever here.
It's about as big as your palm,
Including its legs.
It's very big.
And there's another one right next to it.
They seem to be just hanging out with each other.
There's a lot of tiny little crabs.
There's some fish and you spot a sand dollar.
The sand dollar is laying quite close to the surface.
Reaching in very carefully,
You pick it up.
It's covered in what look like tiny little hairs and you can tell that the sand dollar is still alive.
It's not dry and dead looking.
Respecting that,
You put the sand dollar back into the tide pool.
You wouldn't want to take it,
Especially when it's still alive.
But it would be cool to own a sand dollar.
They're so perfect with their pretty little picture in the middle.
You see two starfish in this pool.
These ones are grey,
Quite dark and at first you didn't spot them because they look just like the rock.
You're really happy that you came here today.
It feels nice to just listen to the ocean lapping up on the rock close by.
You can hear the birds,
The seagulls.
All the voices from the beach seem so far away now you can't hear them anymore.
It feels like you're there all on your own,
Like this special place is just there for you.
You feel like you could just lay back on the rock for a while and relax.
So that's what you do.
And as you lay back on the rock,
You can feel the cool rock underneath your bare arms and legs.
You can feel the coolness of the rock through your t-shirt on your back.
The rock feels a little bit damp,
But you don't mind.
The coolness is like a welcome,
Refreshing feeling.
Looking up at the sky,
The sun has shifted to a different point of view from where you're staring so now you can comfortably,
Very comfortably,
Just stare at the clouds in the sky.
There's a breeze in the air and the clouds are slowly moving,
Changing form and shape as the wind blows them into different directions.
You close your eyes and listen to the sounds.
You've always enjoyed the sound of water,
Whether it's the ocean,
A stream,
Or even the shower.
There's something about water that makes you feel relaxed and at peace.
It's comfortable,
Soothing to your body and your mind.
The lapping sounds of the water on the rocks feels like it lulls you into a deep,
Deep state of relaxation.
You can feel your body softening,
As if your legs and your arms are heavy,
Welcoming the support of the rock beneath you.
It's very comfortable and enjoyable and you're so glad you came,
Lying still,
Not really thinking about anything but listening to the noise of the ocean,
The sound of the birds.
You feel like you could fall to sleep very easily if you let yourself.
Your eyes get heavy and after a couple of tries to keep them open,
You finally give in and just close down your eyes.
Feeling the breeze blowing over the hairs on your arms,
Tickling them slightly.
Hearing the soothing sounds of the water in the background.
You allow yourself to relax even more into the rock beneath your body.
Feeling an overwhelming feeling of peace and happiness inside of you.
Not thinking about anything else in the world other than just enjoying being in the moment.
Enjoying the rock pool.
Enjoying the tide pools all to yourself.
Wondering about whether all of the creatures inside of them take a nap.
Do they need naps?
Do they sleep?
You get distracted just a little bit by the thought of whether starfish need to fall to sleep.
But then you let it go and get pulled back into the sounds in the background once again.
Allowing yourself to get lulled into a deep,
Deep,
Deep sleep.
All of your muscles relaxing,
Becoming heavier and heavier.
Your face relaxes and softens.
Your tummy relaxes and softens.
Everything in the world is starting to fade away even more.
And as you fall asleep listening to the sounds of the water caressing the rocks around you.
You feel the happiest that you've been in a long,
Long time.
And you decide to stay there for as long as you want to.
