So as you rest there and begin to comfortably fall asleep,
You can hear my voice in the background.
And as you hear my voice in the background,
So you can begin to drift asleep.
And I don't know whether you'll fall asleep faster with the sound of my voice,
With the words that I use,
Or whether it'll be with the spaces between my words.
And as you fall asleep with your eyes closed,
I'm just going to tell you a story about a girl in a meadow.
And this girl grew up in the countryside,
And she loved it in the countryside.
Every single day she'd wander out into the countryside.
She couldn't bear to just stay indoors.
She'd wake up in the morning,
And she'd look forward to going outside.
Whatever the weather,
She'd look forward to going outside,
Being part of nature,
Enjoying walking around outside,
Making the most of her day.
And on this day she's gone outside,
And she wanders along out of her property.
She wanders round and finds her way to a chalk bridleway.
And there's patches of green grass down the middle of the bridleway,
That's been used for hundreds and hundreds of years,
And so it's worn down.
And the chalk is clearly visible down both sides,
Chalk and flint,
And some other stones here and there,
And some mud.
And it's a nice dry and warm day.
And she walks along this bridleway,
Gazing out at the fields on either side,
Looking up and noticing the blue sky,
Noticing wispy clouds in the sky.
She pays attention to notice how fast the clouds are moving,
And what direction,
And tries to work out whether it looks like the clouds are moving in the same direction as the breeze that she can feel,
Or whether maybe the clouds are moving in a different direction,
And perhaps the wind up there is heading in a different direction to the wind down here.
And little things like that she found curious.
And she looked out to the left and right over the different fields,
And she could see that in the fields were different crops,
And one field was the most beautiful brilliant yellow,
And smelt gorgeous.
And another field was green.
And another field was purple and full of lavender.
And she could see the different butterflies,
Different bees,
Different creatures enjoying the different environments,
The different fields.
And she was walking past these fields to go to some hills that are in the distance,
And the hills didn't have use like the fields did.
Sheep grazed on the hills,
That kept the grass short,
That she wanted to go and sit on that grass on the hill,
Looking over the countryside.
So she walked all the way to those hills.
And as she walked towards the hills,
So she found a little village area that she walked through.
And while walking through the village,
With cobbled roads,
Most beautiful houses,
The most colorful flowers,
She felt herself drawn in to the smell from a rose bush.
And she stopped and lingered near that rose bush,
Taking in the smell of the roses,
Enjoying that smell,
Watching the bees landing on the roses,
Getting on with their day,
Noticing the way the roses in the bush moved and swayed in the breeze,
Just enjoying that.
And the interesting thing about these roses is the way they didn't have thorns.
So she picked one of the roses to take with her,
And as she carried on walking,
She would put that rose under her nose and have a sniff every now and then,
And then be gazing up with delight and smile on her face,
A feeling of happiness,
While she walked through this beautiful village,
Heading towards those hills.
And she saw different flowers and she'd stop and smell them.
And then as she would mindlessly,
While gazing around,
Walk through this village,
She'd find herself from time to time touching the petals of the rose in her hands,
Just noticing the smooth,
Silky,
Slightly waxy feeling of the petals,
Enjoying that feeling of the petals,
While walking along,
Aware of the warmth of the sun on her skin and on her face,
The way it was warming her cheeks and the breeze in her hair.
And then she passed out the other side of the village,
Continuing her journey.
She noticed a cat that joined her,
A little black and white cat.
She could hear it meowing as she approached,
And she didn't approach it.
It approached her,
Which is the way it should be.
It jumped down off a wall and it ran over her legs and weaved itself between her legs,
Around one foot,
Around the back of the other,
Back around in a figure of eight,
Around her feet,
Rubbing its body on her legs.
And she carried on walking and it then started walking beside her,
Following along,
Wanting to walk with her,
And she was nearing that meadow,
Nearing that hill,
And it wanted to walk along with her.
And so she just let it walk with her for a while.
She knew that it knew its territory.
It knew where it was and where it was willing to go.
She wasn't taking it anywhere,
It was deciding what it wanted to do,
And she knew where it had found her.
So she knew it can follow her back to there afterwards.
And as she reached the meadow and climbed up the hill,
She settled down on the grass.
She could feel the cool grass underneath her.
She enjoyed the feeling with her fingertips and her palm of her hands,
Of the grass beside her.
She relaxed back and the cat climbed onto her lap,
Curled up and rested and started purring.
And so she gently started stroking that cat with one hand while with her other hand.
She started reading a book,
Holding and reading a book,
She liked to let her mind drift off,
She liked to be lost in a book.
And so she sat there on that hillside,
Taking some time to feel nature,
Feel being part of nature while reading a book and stroking that cat.
And then after a while of reading,
She lay down on her side with the cat laying down beside her and she just stroked the cat gently,
The cat purring.
Just listening to the surroundings,
Listening to birds in the distance,
Listening to sheep bowing,
Listening to other sounds around while resting there,
The sound of the breeze,
Sound of rustling leaves of trees,
Enjoying the warmth of the sun,
The comfort of the warmth of the sun,
The breeze in her hair.
And she just rested there.
And she found her mind drifting and wandering so comfortably and calmly and felt so peaceful.
And after some time she decided it was time to go on a wander.
So she wandered back towards the village to guide that cat back to the village.
And after guiding the cat back to the village,
She decided to take a different route.
She turned down a different path,
Wandering down to the river.
As she wandered down to the river,
She could gradually hear that river getting louder and louder as she got closer and closer.
She knew it was quite a rough river.
There was a lot of spray down by the river and she quite liked being down there,
Especially on warm,
Sunny days,
With the feeling of the spray.
So she walked down by the river and she could see how rough that river was.
And although it was rough,
It was quite shallow and generally quite safe.
It was just its layout that made it appear quite rough and sound rougher than it probably really was.
And she sat on a rock beside the water and took her shoes off and put her feet into the water and just enjoy that feeling of the water rushing through the feet and the sound of that water and smelling the fresh water and noticing how that water is so cool compared to the warm sun and the kind of tickling feeling of the running water.
And she sat there for a while on that rock,
Enjoying that flowing,
Running,
Rough water.
And then after a while,
She walked through the water to get to the other side of the river.
You could feel that rough water rising up above her ankles,
Tickling just above her ankles as it bubbled around her feet.
Then she got to the other side and walked barefoot into the grass,
Feeling the way the grass felt compared to the water and the rocky bed under the water.
And she decided to sit down on the grass,
Let her feet dry in the sun and just enjoy this day out.
And so she sat there drifting off in a daydream,
Having her own little reveries,
Allowing herself to become lost in thought,
Thinking pleasant thoughts and dreams,
And aware of how much she just enjoys the simple life,
That these things are the most precious things in life,
Being out in nature,
Being one with the world around you,
Getting on with nature and the world around you.
She thought to herself how it's not all about possessions,
A good book is all you need,
A good book and natural outdoors.
And after a while,
She decided it would be good to start heading home,
Make sure she'll be home in time for tea,
In time for something to eat before bed.
So she walked to a path,
Put on her shoes,
And took a different route back,
Walking along this path that had the same chalky effect from all these chalk hills around the area,
Walking into some woodland,
Enjoying her time through that woodland,
Noticing deer in the woods,
Hearing birds,
Noticing woodpeckers,
Seeing butterfly,
Working her way through the woods.
And after coming out the woods,
She goes over a bridge that takes her over the river,
The most beautiful stone bridge you could imagine.
And she follows that path round,
Which takes her to in front of that village and continues the path,
And follows it all the way back towards her home.
She walks past those fields,
Decides to slow down to pick some of the lavender,
And carries on walking,
Enjoys the smell of the lavender,
Enjoys the smells from the other fields,
Gazes off and notices a bird circling overhead so gracefully,
And wanders all the way back home.
And on arriving at home,
She takes her shoes off,
Settles down,
And has something to eat.
Then after a while,
She decides it's time to go to bed.
So she goes to bed,
Lies down,
And as she drifts comfortably asleep,
She allows her mind to wander to her journey from the day.
And in her mind's eye,
She follows that journey.
She follows the journey along the side of the fields.
She follows the journey round to that village.
She thinks about that rose,
What it smelled like,
What it felt like.
She follows the journey round to finding that cat,
And making friends with that cat.
And as she's falling asleep,
She feels a little smile come to her face.
She finds that when she falls asleep,
She doesn't try to fall asleep.
She just thinks about things that make her feel good,
Things that make her lost in thought,
Things that she'd love to think about as she drifts off asleep.
And she thinks about those things and naturally,
Comfortably falls asleep.
And she has a sense of that little cat,
What it was like to stroke the cat,
Chill out with the cat while reading a book,
To be listening to sheep and other animals,
To be enjoying some time up on that hillside.
She recalls what it was like to be dangling her feet in the water and listening to that rough water bubbling away.
And she recalls her walk back,
The deer she saw in the woods.
And as she drifts comfortably asleep,
She rolls over slightly and notices the smell of lavender still on her fingers,
And recalls picking the lavender from the fields on the way home just before she saw that bird in the sky.
And she starts to wonder what she's going to do tomorrow,
What kind of experiences she'll have tomorrow.
And she drifted comfortably and fell asleep.
