Are you ready to meditate with Kari?
Are you ready to be so still and quiet in your bed?
That way you can relax your body and let go of your busy,
Busy day.
Stephanie had just got home from hanging out with her friends.
She was on vacation.
School had broken up for the holidays.
She'd been over to her friend's house.
They were trying to make a video together.
They were trying to make a video where she was wishing all of her relatives the biggest,
Happiest Christmas.
And her friend was doing the same thing.
Her friend celebrated Hanukkah,
So her video was very different.
It was really interesting to Stephanie how different holidays can represent different things.
Christmas,
Hanukkah,
Kwanzaa,
Whether you don't celebrate or not,
Doesn't really matter.
Stephanie was just sat at her dressing table in her bedroom thinking about her Christmas,
Her holidays,
And what it all meant to her.
How grateful she was to have so many awesome family members.
How excited she was for Christmas,
What she was going to get this year,
How excited she was about all the gifts that she got people so far.
Stephanie was one of those people that really loved to give gifts.
She got more excited about giving her gifts than receiving gifts.
She stopped thinking for a minute and just stared at herself in the mirror on her dresser.
She thought about going to Moombo Forest,
Wondering what they were doing in Moombo Forest.
She decided to put on her magical earrings.
She opened the jewelry box,
Dug around in there for a moment,
And then pulled out her magical earrings.
She put the left one on first and then the right,
Took a big deep breath and closed her eyes.
She started to feel those familiar tingling sensations starting to travel throughout her entire body.
Her nose started to itch and twitch,
And she felt like she was going to sneeze.
And then there in front of her mind,
As always,
The veil that divided Stephanie between one world,
Which was her world,
And Moombo Forest,
Which was the world beyond the curtain.
The world beyond the veil that separated those two worlds.
It shimmered.
It's silver threads visible in the transparent curtain there in front of her mind.
Without any hesitation,
She reached forward and pulled the curtain to one side and stepped into a favorite place,
Moombo Forest.
She instantly noticed that the ground felt different underneath her feet.
The familiar soft,
Spongy,
Prickly grass was not present.
Instead,
She felt dirt,
Or what felt like chunks of chipwood or something.
It was crunchy and hard underneath her bare feet.
She instantly looked down to see what she was standing on.
The earth beneath her feet looked like the forest floor.
And when she looked up,
She found herself surrounded,
Completely surrounded,
By the most beautiful Christmas tree forest.
She started to walk forward through all the different shapes and size to Christmas trees.
Some of them were very,
Very,
Very tall,
At least 20 feet tall.
And some of them were small,
Five feet tall,
All different sizes.
Some of them were very soft pined,
Bushy,
Droopy looking Christmas trees.
And some of them were very stiff and spiky,
The branches pointing up towards the sky.
At first,
She didn't see anyone in the forest.
She walked for quite some time.
The smell was so,
So Christmassy.
It smelled like every single Christmas candle you could ever,
Ever smell.
Just being here in the forest,
Smelling this smell,
Being surrounded by the Christmas trees felt very,
Very holiday-like.
She was already sensing her body,
Getting excited,
Thinking about Christmas coming.
And then she spotted Luna.
Further up in front of her,
Luna raised her head.
She was grazing on the ground.
She must have heard Stephanie coming.
Stephanie walked over to Luna and smiled and Luna said,
Welcome,
Stephanie.
Luna lent down her forehead and Stephanie instinctively leaned her own forehead and her face into Luna's face.
And they just held each other's presence there for a few seconds in complete silence,
Connecting,
Saying hello,
Energetically,
The way that they always do with each other.
And then Stephanie stepped back and smiled big and bright at Luna and said,
Hi,
Are you ready for Christmas?
Luna smiled.
That's why you're here.
That's why we're in this forest.
I already knew exactly what you needed.
Stephanie smiled big and bright back at Luna and said,
What is this place?
What is it about this forest that's so special?
I mean,
It's beautiful and the trees are awesome and it smells so,
So divine.
But I mean,
Is there anything else about the place?
Stephanie,
Of course,
Is super spoiled when it comes to Moonbow Forest.
There's always something very,
Very magical going on here.
Whether it's everything that you see,
You can eat,
Or whether it's the creatures,
The types of animals or people,
Whoever it is,
There's always something awesome going on in Moonbow Forest.
What was it today?
She thought.
Luna said,
It's the trees.
It's the trees,
Stephanie.
You should see what they can do.
That's when Stephanie got very,
Very excited.
What do they do?
Luna said,
You have to step into them.
You have to step forward,
Turn around,
And then back into the Christmas trees.
Back into them as if you're backing into a big empty room.
Or back into them as if you're backing into the wall behind you or something.
But you have to just turn around,
Look away,
And walk backwards into a tree.
And you'll see what happens.
By the way,
Luna said,
Each tree holds a different magic.
I'll leave you to it.
I have to go back.
The main part of Moonbow Forest is having a celebration today.
And I'm needed there.
I'm needed to do a particular speech to all of the other unicorns.
I'll come back soon though.
I'll come back and pick you up and then maybe you can come and celebrate with us.
Stephanie said,
Oh,
Okay.
I'd like that.
I'd like that a lot.
Bye for now.
And just like that,
Luna flew up off the ground and flew into the sky to go back to a different area of Moonbow Forest.
She left Stephanie to figure things out all by herself down below.
The tree that was in front of Stephanie,
Directly in front of her when Luna left was the first tree that Stephanie was going to try.
She remembered what Luna said.
Just turn around and walk backwards into the tree as if the tree was going to wrap its branches around you and give you a big hug.
So that's exactly what she did.
She took three steps backwards into the tree and it did feel exactly as she thought it would.
The tree wasn't spiky or hard.
It seemed to just soften and put its limbs around her,
Pulling her in close for a cuddle.
Stephanie instinctively closed down her eyes.
And that's when she saw the tree around her.
It had bright red,
White and green baubles all over it with flashing lights and there was a song playing.
Over and over.
We wish you a Merry Christmas.
We wish you a Merry Christmas.
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
The tree was beautiful.
It was a big,
Big tall tree.
A tree that you would see in the middle of Times Square or something.
But it was decorated so basically.
All of the baubles were the same size.
Red,
White and green.
And the flashing lights seemed to flash with the timing of the song.
It was the prettiest tree.
She saw people stirred around the tree.
Cheering,
Clapping,
Swaying,
Holding hands,
Listening to the Christmas music,
Celebrating as if it was Christmas Eve or something.
She stayed there for another minute and then she stepped forward out of the tree,
Turned around and looked at the tree and there it was,
Just a regular tree.
Wow,
She thought.
She started to hurry up.
She started to want to find the next tree that she was going to do exactly that in once again.
She found the perfect looking tree.
It was about seven feet tall.
It was a blue spruce tree.
It was beautiful and she could smell the pine from where she was stirred quite far away.
She was drawn to it.
It was the perfect shape and size and everything and it would look so good in her home.
She turned around away from the tree and took three steps back.
Again,
The tree didn't move or prickle at her at all.
It just seemed to soften and put its limbs around her,
Accepting it into its magic.
She got there.
She found herself in a house.
There was a little boy and a little girl staring up at the tree and the tree was all covered at the base with presents,
All wrapped up pretty with bows,
Different colours and different types of paper.
There was a fireplace in the background.
This tree,
This tree had purple and lilac dangling bells all over it.
It had twinkle,
Twinkle lights that were a light blue colour.
They weren't twinkling.
They were just a constant light blue twinkle and they were all over the tree.
There must have been hundreds and hundreds of lights and so many purple and lilac bells.
The kids were staring up at the tree and then they were staring mostly at the presents below and they were so excited and the cool thing was Stephanie felt like she was the tree.
From the tree's perspective,
Looking out into the living room,
Looking at these small children,
So excited,
So happy.
She could feel their excitement like the tree,
Your Christmas tree,
Her Christmas tree at home could feel you.
This was a completely new,
Weird perspective of Christmas for Stephanie.
She was seeing Christmas from the tree's perspective.
It was beautiful.
This house was so quaint and cosy and Christmassy and the fireplace crackling in the background made it feel so special and warm.
She wanted to stay there but she knew she had so many trees to look at.
So she stepped forward out of the tree and hurried to the next one.
The next one was a very dark,
Green,
Evergreen-looking pine tree.
It was only small.
It was about three feet tall,
Smaller than she was.
She turned around,
Put her back towards the tree and took three steps back.
She stepped into the tree and once again she felt completely loved and She stepped into the tree and once again she felt completely loved and hugged by the tree as if she was becoming part of the tree.
As if she was becoming the tree itself.
This time she found herself in the middle of them all.
She wasn't a three-foot tree.
She was more like a 30-foot tree.
The tree was tall enough to reach the second story of them all and there were so many people shopping and walking around.
Some people were sat on benches just staring at her as the tree.
But most of the people were just in their own worlds walking past,
Shopping frantically,
Busy,
Completely absorbed in the whole rush and stress of Christmas.
This tree didn't feel so great.
This tree felt a little bit anxious actually,
A little bit sad,
A little bit unseen.
She felt unseen,
Apart from the few people on the benches that were staring at her.
But they weren't really staring very long.
They were in their own worlds,
In their own minds,
Distracted by the pressure and the drudgery and the heaviness and the desperation that a lot of people feel at Christmas.
She felt like so many people walking past were concerned about money.
So many people walking past were stressed,
Tired.
She felt people's hunger even.
Some people were so hungry as if they've been working all day and they had to get to the mall and get their presents because they were rushing and it was late and it was almost Christmas.
It was stress,
Stress,
Stress,
Stress,
Stress.
It wasn't fun being this tree at all.
The tree itself was beautiful.
It had so many different ornaments,
Characters,
Santas,
Birds,
Angels,
All,
All,
All so pretty.
Big giant baubles,
Big giant bows.
It had chunks of ivory and holly and berries.
It was gorgeous,
Yet no one seemed to notice.
Everyone was in too much of a rush.
It made Stephanie think about how many people really dread the holidays.
How many people don't enjoy the holidays.
How many people just were so concerned about not having enough money for the holidays.
The holidays can be such a money racket.
People think they have to spend and spend and spend and spend.
And many times it becomes about greed and just spend,
Spend,
Spend.
People lose the love.
People lose the heart of the holidays,
The gratitude,
The joy,
The sheer bliss of just enjoying family and friends and sharing your love with someone else.
Stephanie quickly stepped out of this tree and when she turned around and saw the three-foot little tree,
She felt quite sorry for it.
She stroked one of its branches and said,
It's okay,
I see you.
You're a beautiful tree.
Stephanie was heading towards another tree when Luna landed and said,
It's probably time you should come celebrate.
It was perfect timing actually because Stephanie was feeling a little bit heavy from the last tree.
She smiled at Luna and Luna leaned forward,
Got down on her knees at the front,
So that Stephanie could climb on her back and be taken to the celebration.
When she got to the other side of Moonbow Forest and landed,
She was very grateful.
There were so many of her friends there,
All the different unicorns,
All the different people and creatures that she'd met there.
They were drinking Christmas Punch.
It was pink lemonade with red berries in it,
Special berries that you could eat that were delicious and they popped in your mouth.
And when they popped in your mouth,
It lifted you up and you could feel it in your mouth.
It literally said,
Bang,
Bang.
They were super cute and it was such a fun,
Fun punch to drink.
Stephanie had a really nice time at the celebration.
It cheered her up.
It made her remember all the good things about the holidays.
It made her think about her friend and how she celebrates Hanukkah and her holidays and how people celebrate different things all over the world.
It's all about the celebration,
Really.
Devotion,
Celebration,
Love,
Happiness.
Later on,
For whatever reason,
When Stephanie opened her eyes,
She found herself in her bedroom once again.
She smiled a big smile,
Excited about her own Christmas coming real soon.
She pulled her knees up to her chest,
Rolled over to her side,
Snuggled into her blanket,
And then fell fast asleep.
The end.
