The Cabin In The Woods: Long Bedtime Story

In this soothing long sleep story, a person finds peace in a log cabin by a lake, relaxing by a log fire and reading on a snowy winter day. They drift into sleep, lured by the hooting of an owl, and experience being the owl, rescuing a lost gerbil in the snow and returning it to the cabin. Meanwhile, a snow fox meets a red fox in the woods. The person's day continues with a snowmobile ride for firewood, a xylophone performance in the village, and a moment of relaxation in a snowy clearing.

The story transitions into a dream inside the Sphinx, scratching the bellies of a lion and a tiger, before witnessing a rainbow-colored transformation of a valley, lake, and waterfall. The person awakens refreshed, continuing their serene life by the lake as seasons change, concluding with the friendship of the snow fox and the red fox in a vibrant, lively woodland.

Transcript

And just take a moment to get yourself comfortable and allow your eyes to close.

And with your eyes closed,

I'll tell you a story in the background.

And I don't know whether you'll fall asleep faster to the sound of my words or the spaces between my words,

But as you begin to drift to sleep,

So I'll just tell this story.

And it's a story about a person who lives in the woods in a cabin.

In those woods,

It's a vast pine wooded area,

All snow covered,

Mountains in the distance.

And just down from the cabin is a lake.

And this person relaxes in that cabin,

In the most comfortable chair,

Feeling the warmth of a roaring log fire,

Feeling that warmth on their cheeks.

And as they relax in that chair,

So they pick up a book off the table next to the chair.

And they just start reading through that book,

Just slowly reading through the book.

And although they're reading through the book,

A part of them is almost like it's drifted elsewhere.

And so they're reading through the book,

But at the same time,

They're almost not reading through the book.

Almost unaware of what's going on page by page.

And yet they feel themselves still reading,

Still turning those pages,

Still relaxing.

And out the corner of their eye,

They can notice the way the log fire flickers and the way shadows dance on the walls.

And they're sitting in this room with low lighting,

Making this room feel so cozy and comfortable.

And they can look over at the window and notice the snow piled up against the window pane.

And they can see the snow falling outside and the way the light from the fire glows in the room.

As they continue reading that book,

Drifting and relaxing deeper into the moment.

And every now and then they have this feeling like they're starting to nod off in the chair,

Almost like their head gets a bit heavier.

Their shoulders and neck relax,

Their arms relax,

Their breathing slows and calms.

And then they bring their attention to the book again,

Only to find that happen again and again.

And they realize after a while that despite trying to read,

They're not really taking it in right now.

But watching those words as they scan the pages seems to just help them feel more tired and drift inside their mind.

And so they close the book,

Put it on the table and they walk over to the window and they touch the glass with the palm of their hand.

And they can feel the coolness moving from outside to inside,

Feeling that coolness at their fingertips,

Their palm,

Moving into their hand.

Realizing that as they move their hands so,

They've left a slightly damp handprint on the window.

And they sit back down in the chair.

And have a nice warm drink.

As they feel more relaxed.

They can hear the way the fire's crackling in the background.

And they just enjoy being in the moment,

Knowing they're so warm and comfortable here.

While outside is cold.

Everything's covered with a layer of snow.

And they feel themselves beginning to drift inside their mind.

They feel their eyes getting heavier with each blink.

Until eventually their eyes blink and don't open again.

They just continue to drift deeper inside and relax further.

And as they drift inside their mind so,

They can notice the way lights dancing outside their eyelids.

And they can hear what sounds like an owl hooting in a nearby tree.

And with their eyes closed,

They begin to focus their attention on that sound of the owl.

Focusing on where in space that owl is.

And as they focus on that owl,

So they begin to have a sense of being that owl.

Seeing what that owl can see.

Hearing the wind whistle past their ears.

Feeling the movement of the feathers as the wind blows through the tree.

And as the owl they gaze out over the vast white expanse.

Down towards the lake.

And they can't see as far as the lake because of the snow.

So they gaze in that direction.

They notice the movement out there of other animals out here in this pine woodland.

And as the wind dies down a little,

So the snow begins to fall softly downwards.

And as that snow falls softly downwards,

So the owl decides to launch silently off that branch.

Stretch its wings.

And glide down.

And swerve and swoop around.

Circling,

Exploring.

Listening.

And as that owl circles,

So easily and effortlessly,

And so quietly.

So it can move its head and hear the footsteps of different animals.

And it can see different animals.

And the owl notices an unusual animal.

An animal it's never seen before.

It seems to be the wrong colour for being out here in the snow.

And the owl circles around that animal,

Trying to figure out what it is.

It's a small animal.

And it looks cold.

And the owl doesn't know what it is,

Doesn't realise that that animal is a gerbil.

But it wants to help and it swoops down.

Picks up that gerbil.

And flies it up into its tree,

Placing it on a branch.

And the gerbil appears scared and cold.

And the owl explains that,

In this weather,

At this time,

It's here to help.

It's wise,

It often knows what to do.

It's often called upon to help.

And the gerbil,

With a bit of a chatter,

Explains that they'd wandered off out of their home.

Decided to go exploring and then got lost.

And that for a while it wasn't too bad.

They could find things to eat.

They were able to explore.

And they thought they'd eventually find their own way home.

But then this snow came.

And the snow seemed to come out of nowhere.

And everything went white and cold.

And they didn't know how to find their way back home.

But with it being so cold,

They panicked and just tried their best.

And the owl asked them what their home is like.

And they said that it was a warm place.

With a crackling log fire.

Some large animal walking around.

Not talking much.

Often lost in thought.

And looking at different things.

And sitting in a chair.

And the owl realised this animal must have come from the cabin in these woods.

So the owl picked up that gerbil.

Leapt off the branch.

Stretched its wings.

And flew with such silence.

Through the snowy sky.

Until it could see the glow of orange-yellow light.

And then the outline of the cabin.

And the gerbil said that's my home.

That's where I came from.

And the owl took that gerbil.

Up to the door.

Placed it on the snow.

And the gerbil was so light it didn't sink into the snow.

And the owl sunk a little bit into the snow.

And then the owl fluttered against the door.

And knocked its beak on the door.

Until it could hear movement coming from inside the cabin.

And then the owl turned and took off.

And flew out of sight.

And the person in the cabin was in his reverie.

Still trying to pinpoint that owl.

Still focusing on trying to see what the owl sees.

And this experience he's just had feels confusing.

The experience feels confusing because he's sure he's just imagined himself as the owl.

Picking up a gerbil.

Talking to a gerbil.

And flying his pet gerbil back to his cabin.

And then at the point that he's imagined this happening.

He hears what's in his mind's eye happening at his door.

And he's unsure whether the sound he hears at his door is also in his mind.

And so he opens his eyes.

Breaking his connection with the owl.

And he still hears the noise at the door.

So he gets out of the chair.

He walks to the door.

Opens the door.

Feels that cold air as it rushes in.

And sees his gerbil shivering in the snow.

And he reaches down and he picks his gerbil up.

And he'd wondered where the gerbil had gone.

And he goes and stands near the fire.

Holding that cold gerbil.

Stroking the gerbil.

Holding it against him.

Letting his body warmth warm that gerbil.

And then sits down in the chair and just has it resting on his lap.

As it rests there.

Relaxing.

And he strokes that gerbil.

And back outside that owl.

Flies back to its tree.

And continues to just watch this evening unfold.

And while the owl watches the evening unfold so the snow begins to pass.

And as the clouds clear so the owl notices the sky.

Notices a blanket of twinkling stars.

Notices that now the clouds are clearing.

That not only are there lights in the sky from an aurora.

But there's also shooting stars heading in all directions.

And the owl is sure that they hear those shooting stars fizzing as they travel across the sky.

And some of those shooting stars are quite large and bright.

But most are just like someone drawing a line in the sky.

That's being erased almost as far as it's drawn.

Drawing that line in the sky being erased almost as fast as it's being drawn.

And the owl just watches and relaxes.

And admires the beauty of where they live.

And while the owl relaxes in the tree.

So elsewhere in the forest.

Elsewhere in these woods.

Another animal is out walking through the snow.

And it's a thickly coated snow fox.

Pushing through the powdery snow.

Occasionally crunching through some slightly squished down top surface snow.

It's almost like snow with a shell.

And this snow fox isn't particularly bothered by this cold.

It pushes through chin deep through this snow.

Occasionally finding bits to eat.

And then it finds its way to a tree.

And the tree has a hole in the bottom.

And that snow fox decides to explore inside that tree.

And as it enters that tree.

So it's surprised to see another fox sleeping.

A fox that's the most beautiful red colour.

And that fox seems to be sleeping among leaves.

And other vegetation.

Making this quite a warm area to sleep.

And that snow fox is curious about this red fox.

The snow fox had never seen a fox of that colour.

Had only ever seen other white foxes.

And it didn't know whether to wake that fox or not.

And so for now it decided it would mark this tree.

And let the fox sleep.

And then come back as the snow begins to clear.

At the point where it would normally travel off elsewhere.

It'll come back here to meet this fox.

And the person in that cabin.

Puts that gerbil back into its cage.

Decides it's going to have to be more careful this time.

And hope that gerbil won't walk off and wander off.

And get lost again.

The person didn't even want to think about.

How that gerbil came to arrive home.

Back at the cabin.

Didn't want to think about the fact that there could be talking animals out there.

And that they could have had a connection with those animals.

And they had to go out and gather some bits from down by the lake.

And run a few errands.

They wrapped up in a warm thick jacket.

Thick trousers and boots and gloves.

They left the cabin crunched through the snow.

Walking round the side of the cabin.

They got on to their snowmobile.

And that snowmobile on.

And rode it down towards the lake.

And they pulled it up near the lake.

Grabbed some firewood from a shed near the lake.

Placed that firewood on the back of the snowmobile.

Before then setting off into the woods.

Following a track into the woods.

And snow was spraying up behind the snowmobile.

And they wished that the snowmobile was quieter.

And they would have walked running these errands.

But the snowmobile is so much easier than dragging firewood.

Up to your cabin and running errands on foot in this weather.

And as they travelled through the woods.

So the full moon in the sky.

Sent silver shards of light dancing through the trees.

On the path in front of them.

And as they found a clearing.

They came to a halt for a while.

To admire the view.

That bright full moon in the sky.

The way it illuminated the snow.

Made the snow appear to sparkle.

Like the surface of that snow is covered in millions of diamonds.

And they looked around and they looked in the other direction.

They could see the aurora in the sky.

Shooting stars.

And all the normal stars up there twinkling.

And they sat themselves down on the snow for a moment.

And then lay back on the snow.

Just looking up.

So warm in their coat and trousers.

Just gazing up at the sky.

Noticing their breath.

Rise from their mouth with each out breath.

They gaze up at that night sky.

While gazing up at the night sky.

So they started thinking about these animals.

Thinking about how the owl and the gerbil.

Seemed to talk to each other.

Thinking about whether that could be real.

And just coincidence.

That the gerbil was dropped off on the doorstep.

Or whether what they imagined actually happened.

And they continued their journey back on that snowmobile.

Heading down to a small village.

Not far from where they lived.

And they followed this track.

Through some clearing.

Through woodland.

Until it reached what could almost be described as a road.

And they continued to follow this.

And they could see the small village in the distance.

And as they were heading down towards it.

They imagined it would make a perfect Christmas card.

Taking a photo from here of that village.

Lights on in the village.

The glow of the village.

And they headed down into that village.

And they pulled up their snowmobile near a village hall.

And went into that village hall.

Where there are other villagers here.

Other locals from places near this village.

And they're all here.

To put on a bit of a show.

And this person's job was.

To play a xylophone.

As part of a musical act.

And a part of his mind was still spent wondering about those animals.

About his experiences from earlier in the evening.

But he went and.

Set himself up with a xylophone.

He took off his outerwear.

And different people had done different performances.

Then it was his turn with a couple of others.

And so.

He started playing out.

Some music.

Initially something really easy.

Almost like just doing chopsticks.

On that xylophone.

Whenever he played the xylophone.

And his reasons.

The reasons for getting into playing the xylophone.

They thought it sounded.

Like children's cartoon interpretations of skeletons.

And their bones.

And that always made them laugh.

And so they couldn't help themselves.

They had to learn to play.

And so they initially.

Played a couple of very simple tunes.

Making sure the audience didn't have high expectations.

And then started surprising the audience.

By transitioning.

Into fast paced rock and roll sounding tunes.

Traditional 1950's rock and roll.

On a xylophone.

And Johnny B.

Goode.

Blue suede shoes.

They knew this would stun the audience.

And hopefully entertain.

They'd always work up a sweat to do this.

But they'd worked hard to achieve this.

And after they'd finished.

The evening carried on.

They mixed with others in the hall.

Chatted,

Laughed,

Socialised for a while.

They felt uncomfortable with socialising.

But felt that having an icebreaker.

Even something where people are laughing at.

Something they've done intentionally.

Like at how surprised they are by that performance.

Would be an icebreaker that would help them.

Have a conversation starter,

Something to talk about.

And they enjoyed bonding with this one person there.

Talking with this one person.

Sharing experiences.

Especially on nights like this.

Where it's cold and.

The desire is just to say sitting in a chair.

In front of a roaring log fire.

Reading and then drifting asleep.

Nights like this would encourage them.

To go out,

To mix with others.

And to encourage them to do things they ordinarily wouldn't.

But know they would enjoy if they did.

And after their evening of fun.

So they went back.

Got on their snowmobile.

And made the journey all the way back.

To their cabin.

They carried in the wood.

And they settled down in front of that fire.

Had a warm drink.

Before heading off to bed.

And falling comfortably asleep.

And as they drifted comfortably asleep.

So they.

Processed the day.

Processed their experiences.

What they learned from the day.

And they processed all this in their dreams.

And as they processed this in their dreams.

They began to have a sense of.

Walking through somewhere warm.

Almost the polar opposite.

Of their real environment.

They had a sense of.

Climbing up a ladder.

And walking into the sphinx's mouth.

In the middle of a desert.

And inside this sphinx.

They saw a lion.

And a tiger.

Both of which were almost as big as this person.

Who stood tall.

And they were taken aback by this experience.

As the lion and tiger.

Just sat down.

And then lied down.

And then both rolled on their sides.

And then on their backs.

And the person felt this sense of comfort.

Around this lion and this tiger.

And couldn't explain why there was a lion and a tiger.

In the belly of the sphinx.

But walked up to the two of them.

Reached down.

And started stroking.

And scratching both their bellies at once.

And was shocked.

By the bizarre purring sound.

Of the lion and tiger.

That it was deeper.

And nothing like the sound of a pet cat.

And they could feel the warmth.

And that these animals seem to just want love and affection.

And that they may appear scary.

But actually.

Just because they're scary in one setting.

Doesn't mean they're evil.

Or bad.

They have their nature.

And their nature includes.

Wanting affection.

Wanting love.

And connection.

And when the person lifted their hands off the lion and the tiger.

Both of them almost instantly.

Made a noise that sounded like a disapproving low rumble.

And they thought to themselves.

Just like when you scratch.

Or stroke.

Any animal.

Once you start.

They just want you to keep going.

And get annoyed if you stop.

So they sat down for a while.

On the floor with the cats.

Just stroking and rubbing the bellies of those cats.

Thinking this is the most unusual experience.

Or dream.

But they continued anyway.

Knowing this is teaching something.

It's their minds way of teaching them something.

And eventually.

The sphinx began to disappear around them.

And the cats beneath both their hands.

Began to fade away.

And the world began to extend out.

Into the most beautiful lush green valley.

With a lake.

And a waterfall pouring down into that lake.

And at the foot of the waterfall they could notice.

The way the sun was shining through the spray.

Was creating a rainbow.

And as they neared that waterfall.

They could feel the spray reaching their face.

The coolness of that water.

And they went and sat down near the waterfall.

Sat down near the lake.

And started gazing at the rainbow.

Hovering in the spray.

And as they gazed at that rainbow.

So the waterfall appeared to be.

Falling upwards.

Whenever they looked at it directly.

They could see that it was falling down.

But when they gazed at the rainbow.

And had their peripheral vision noticing the water.

The water seemed to be rising up.

Almost like time was in reverse.

And they were highly curious about this.

They didn't know if it was an optical illusion.

Caused by.

The way they are viewing it out of the corner of their eye.

Versus looking directly at it.

And they picked up some sticks.

And they walked around near the waterfall.

And they climbed their way up.

To the top of the waterfall.

They walked some way along the river at the top of the waterfall.

They then threw one stick in.

They waited a minute.

And then threw the other stick in.

And those sticks were far enough away that they were just moving very slowly.

In the direction of the waterfall.

But they knew the closer the sticks get to the waterfall.

The faster those sticks will move.

And that gave them time to climb back down again.

And they went and sat where they were before.

And they watched the rainbow.

And they watched as the first stick came over the waterfall.

And they continued to watch the rainbow.

And watched the stick fall out of the corner of their eye.

And they wondered what would happen.

Because if everything is moving backwards as it seems.

For real.

That stick shouldn't fall over the waterfall.

But if it's an optical illusion.

Somehow that stick will fall over the waterfall.

And they saw that stick.

Appear at the top of the waterfall.

As it falls over the waterfall.

And the water continued to appear to flow upwards.

As that stick fell downwards.

And then they looked at the waterfall.

As the second stick arrived.

And the waterfall was flowing downwards.

While they looked directly at it.

And just as they expected.

That stick came over the waterfall.

Perfectly normal.

And they thought to themselves.

That's okay.

It was just a simple optical illusion.

And as they thought that.

So the colours from the rainbow.

Fell out the water.

And started filling the lake.

And then flowing through the.

Mist from the waterfall.

Flowing through the spray.

And then spreading up the waterfall.

Until the waterfall just looked like.

A solid rainbow.

With some translucency to it.

Pouring down and into a lake.

And they knew this was no optical illusion.

This was just odd.

But they enjoyed watching.

As they saw those colours spread.

And start to make the whole meadow.

Or the grassland appear.

Vibrant and colourful.

As colourful birds took off in the distance.

And the sky started taking on multiple hues.

And they drifted deeper.

And deeper asleep.

And then they drifted into an even deeper sleep.

Drifting out of a dreaming sleep.

Into the healing recuperative sleep.

Going through the usual stages of nightly sleep.

From dreaming sleep to deep healing sleep.

And then some more dreaming sleep.

More deep healing sleep.

Through the night.

And the next day they awoke.

Feeling so refreshed and so wonderful.

And carried on their usual day after day.

As the season carried on.

And as the season drew to a close.

So the snow fox went back to that tree.

Waited at the tree.

For that red fox to awaken.

And when the red fox awakened.

That snow fox was there to greet it.

And the red fox was surprised.

Had never seen a white fox before.

And the snow fox explained who they are.

What things have been like while they've been asleep.

And the red fox explained who they are.

And what things are like.

When that snow fox isn't around.

And the two of them normally.

Went about their lives.

Not really interacting with others.

But found this unusual friendship.

And worked out how they could look forward to seeing each other.

At certain times.

And how because they lead different lives.

They have plenty to talk about.

And plenty to build friendships around.

And as snow cleared.

So the woodland came alive with other birds and animals.

And colours came back to the woodland.

The lake became the most beautiful blue.

And that person enjoyed going out on the lake.

Relaxing in a boat.

Fishing on the lake.

More for the relaxation than the fishing.

And enjoyed reaching the end of a day.

Sitting in the cabin reading some book.

Playing with and petting his gerbil.

And going to bed.

And comfortably relaxing asleep.

Enjoying different dreams.

And different experiences.

Relaxing and drifting.

So deeply asleep.

Reviews

He has a Terrific reading voice. The story was relaxing. The combination of voice and story put me to sleep right away.