The Magical Baker: Bedtime Tale

This is a bedtime story about you walking along the cobbled stones of an old high street through a town. You find your way to a curious bookshop. Inside the bookshop, you find a magical shelf. A door appears. Behind the door, you discover a well.

You drink some water from the well. You feel compelled to write an experience you start to have. You write about a baker who baked magical muffins, muffins infused with happiness. You learned how the baker did this; they had to get an ingredient from a secret location at a specific time of year.

At a later time, you set off to find that secret location at that specific time of year, before meeting with one of the bakers present day relatives and sharing the baker's experience with them. You then head home, head to bed, and drift peacefully asleep into Slumberland.

Transcript

So just take a moment to allow your eyes to close and allow yourself to begin to relax as I count comfortably from ten down to one.

And while I count you can imagine a healing light passing through your body,

Healing and softening the muscles,

Gently calming the mind.

From ten,

Relaxing the muscles around the top of the head,

Around the face,

Around your temple and your forehead and the back of the head and around your jaw and your eyes,

Smoothing those muscles so calmly,

So softly,

So carefully,

Relaxing deeper and deeper.

Nine,

As that relaxation gradually works its way around the back of your head,

Slowly relaxing down the back of your neck,

Tingling gently with peace and calm and comfort.

Then guiding relaxation deeper down through you with each out-breath that you take,

Breathing in calm and comfort,

Breathing out any tension.

That's it.

And with each out-breath that you take you can find yourself relaxing deeper and deeper asleep.

And I don't know as you relax deeper and deeper asleep whether it'll be the sound of my voice or the spaces between my words that help you drift deeper and deeper asleep.

Eight,

As that relaxation moves with the next out-breath,

Down your neck,

Around your neck,

Deep within you,

Drifting,

Floating deeper and more peacefully relaxed.

That's it.

Seven,

That relaxation moving carefully and slowly down those arms and around those shoulders and the shoulder blades,

Softening and relaxing those muscles.

Perhaps making those arms begin to feel heavier and heavier in the same way that the eyelids can feel heavier and more relaxed.

Six,

With that relaxation moving down those arms it can begin to reach the fingertips,

Bringing a deep sense of comfort and peace to those fingers.

Five,

That's it,

Relaxing down around the chest,

The upper back and deep within you,

Healing comfortly.

Relaxation can then move slowly towards your stomach and your lower sides and your lower back,

Softening and relaxing so calmly as a mind and body.

Four,

That's it,

All the way as that relaxation moves down around your bottom and down into your legs,

Slowly moving down towards your feet.

Three,

That's it,

Moving all the way down those legs,

Deeper and deeper down,

Bringing a deep sense of peace and calm.

Perhaps taking you to a place in your mind where you drift deeper and deeper asleep so easily and effortlessly,

So honestly and completely.

Where your mind becomes so calm and peaceful,

Where sleep just seems to draw you in,

Where the mind slows right down.

That's it.

Two,

As relaxation spreads around those lower legs,

Down around the ankles,

Down into the feet.

One,

Feeling that relaxation through your whole body,

Like a healing wave of peace and comfort.

And you know the process of sleep involves the body relaxing fully.

As the mind begins to drift off into its own reverie before passing into pleasant dreams.

And as you continue listening to this and we move into the story,

So you can sleep deeply and sleep well all night long.

Then one day you're walking through a quaint high street and it's a cobbled street with old shops.

Many of the shops have existed here for hundreds of years.

With many of the buildings being many hundreds of years old.

There are wooden beams and white facades.

And it's early evening on a cool winter's day.

And the shopfronts are glowing so invitingly and people are wrapped up warm as they walk through this quaint town.

And you see in the distance,

A sign sticking out from the wall and the sign just says,

In a focus bookshop.

And you feel drawn towards that bookshop.

You walk along the cobbled street,

Hearing the sound of each footstep as you go.

Feeling the coolness of the air on your cheeks.

You approach the door of the bookshop and as you approach you can see through the window,

The old books laid out just inside that bookshop.

The soft orangey glow of the lights within the bookshop.

You push on the door to open it and it sticks just for a moment before releasing and you feel the tension of that door as you open it and it knocks a bell that's attached to the doorframe,

Jingling that bell and you're hit with a wave of comfortable warmth and the orange glow of the bookshop and you enter that bookshop,

Closing the door behind you,

Pushing it to and then having to give it one last little push to fully close it and as it closes in the frame so the bell jingles just ever so delicately again and there's a certain stillness and quiet to this bookshop and the ground in this bookshop is carpeted with the thickest,

Softest carpet that dulls every step that you take and in this muted sound space you begin to explore those shelves and there are many shelves in this bookshop all filled with old tomes and behind the counter the shelves full of ancient manuscripts and even older books and next to the counter there's a glass cabinet containing some rare works and on the counter there's some piles of old books waiting to be placed on shelves a really old-looking cash register and a stack of really old maps and every movement you make seems to stimulate a slight waft of old book smell and you walk around initially looking at what books are in here,

Taking a look at the category names and you walk down one side then up the other and then weave among the bookshelves in the middle and once you have an idea of what's within this bookshop you decide to go to the books that most interest you and you head to those shelves and take a few books and very carefully with great care you work your way through some of those pages putting aside a couple of books you think you'll purchase and at the back of the shop there's an area that isn't very well lit that's its own little nook and being its own little nook the light doesn't quite reach here but as you approach the bookshelf here so you hear the sound of a million tinkling bells just so faintly you almost wonder if it's a sound in your mind or a sound from outside of you and you see that there's a row of books all with curious names sounding esoteric or like they describe ancient knowledge and wisdom the kind of thing often hidden from modern-day shelves and as you explore those books you find some of them curious but what becomes more curious than the books themselves is that you realize the shelf itself is what is tingling that sound isn't coming from any book it's coming from the actual shelf and as you shine a light on the shelf so you notice it looks like it's got the finest coating of dust that sparkles in the light you run your finger through that dust and the sparkling dust wafts gently off the shelf some of it falling through the light twinkling its way towards the ground and as your finger reaches the end of the shelf so there's a gentle flash of light so soft you almost think you just blinked but as the light clears you just feel like the environment is different the stillness is still still but that stillness has now changed slightly and you can't quite at first put your finger on it and you step around you look behind you and the shop looks different you realize that thick carpet isn't beneath your feet the sound isn't quite as dulled as it was before and it's only a subtle thing but something that you noticed and you see when you turn back that where the shelf once was is now a door and it's a purple glowing glistening magical looking door and you reach for the doorknob with deep curiosity you carefully open the door the weight of the door swinging so gently almost effortlessly and the other side of the door you see an illuminated room in pristine condition with really curious and magical looking decorations with walls of drapes in purples and in the heart of the room is a stone well with a bucket hanging above that well and you walk over to the well and you lower the bucket and you keep lowering it and lowering it until you hear it sploosh into the water and then you raise that bucket back up and the water in the bucket is a sparkling pinky purple color like liquid electricity and you feel this compulsion to place your hands into that bucket to scoop some of that water and drink some of that water from your hands and as you do that you feel the water so cool passing in through your mouth down your throat tingling through your body reaching the tips of your fingers filling your mind with intense wisdom you feel this compulsion to sit down and write and near the well is a pad of parchment and a fountain pen and a little glass jar of purple fountain pen ink and you add some of that ink to the pen and begin writing almost unconsciously just the handwriting on its own the pen scratching on that parchment as you rapidly write as if something deeper than thoughts is transmitted straight to the hand where you're almost an observer on the writing taking place before you and the writing begins to describe an old bakery that used to be situated here hundreds of years ago and the baker used to make the most incredible muffins and while you write so you start to smell that smell of those muffins you start to hear the sounds of the bakery the sounds of customers arriving and ordering food some sitting down at one of the few tables enjoying eating in and you write about this baker who made these most incredible muffins they'd wake up at 5 a.

M.

Every day they'd head to their bakery they'd bake the food for the day people would turn up early and queue outside waiting for the bakery to open the smell of the baked goods wafting down the street almost like a lure capturing passers-by luring them in to the bakery and the baker never revealed what their secret was behind making such perfect muffins and you find yourself writing about how that baker was so revered and then how that baker had a magic book and inside that book was a recipe for infusing happiness within baked goods and so they infused each muffin with a dollop of happiness and people would come from far and wide to feel happy from consuming those muffins but the ingredients the baker needed meant that once a year at a certain time when the moon was in a certain place in the sky and the tide changed just right the baker would go on a trip they'd have to get on a raft heading out to sea finding their way to an area out to sea that was only possible to reach when the tide was at its absolute lowest and they would dive down from the raft into the shallow water they'd swim down into an underwater cave and a short distance into the cave they would come out into a chamber and they'd walk out into that chamber that was free from water and within that chamber was a red door and they'd open that door and through the door was a curious space a space of glowing mushrooms and these glowing mushrooms seem to grow with the moist walls and the water gently flowing down those walls was filtering from the ocean overhead and something about the interaction between that water and whatever was within the rocks that was then consumed by the growing mushrooms contained a chemical that when added to those pies led to those pies being able to bring happiness and so the baker once a year would come to this space would cut the mushrooms from the walls and as they were cut so that would trigger their spores to release and the spores would catch in the breeze in this space and flow around creating a cloud that would float up to the roof of the cave and mix and mingle and the mushrooms would fall down and float in the water and in the base of this space the moist walls created a thin layer of water on the floor and they would pick up those mushrooms fill a bag with the mushrooms and over a period of time the spores would settle and fill the cave sticking to the walls falling to the floor and the life cycle of this mushroom would continue again and they would dive back through that hole head back to their raft find the way back to their bakery and at the back of their bakery they had a warm room and they'd hang those mushrooms in that warm room and the mushrooms would dry off over a number of days and a number of days later they'll take those mushrooms and turn the mushrooms into powder and fill jars with that powder and then use that powder in their cooking lacing the muffins with the powder and the taste was barely noticeable but the muffins would now bring happiness and you continue to write this story of the baker as it seems to flood in your mind it turns into something of a lullaby telling the story of the baker on a sunny day sharing their baked goods at a church sale raising money for those in need people coming from far and wide from other towns just to buy the muffins at the church sale the community rallying around the baker and the baker begins to wonder whether the people of the community only like the fact that they bake this food they like they start to doubt whether people like them as an individual and so they decide to do a test they bake fruit pies they bake bread and they don't lace things for a little while with the mushrooms and although people acknowledge that these products don't have that special something that the muffins have they smile and they come in and they appreciate the baker for who they are not just for what they do and the baker continues to go back to baking those muffins and you find yourself obsessively writing this whole life story of the baker as they reach an age where they meet somebody they get married they have the grandest wedding in this town they bake the food for their own wedding they have children and bake the birthday cake for their children the children grow up and leave home and set off on their own lives and the baker enjoys sitting down and reading letters as they receive them about the adventures of their children and the town evolves around them and the baker gets older and older but continues doing what they've always done and it feels such a compulsion to write this baker's story as if it's a story that needed to be told and as a grandfather the baker made the most incredible sticky cake with maple syrup it was the largest cake they'd ever made and the whole town gathered round to eat it and the baker felt they needed to share their story they needed to share about those mushrooms they felt it was important to continue that on they'd learnt it secretly at a young age from a traveller to the town and they never had the chance to share that story but the mushrooms were in this room and they poured a jar of the mushroom powder into the well and they infused the mushroom powder with their dreams with their memories they knew the magic of the mushrooms they knew that one day someone would arrive who could tell their story for them and after compulsively writing the story you head back out of this room you close the door and turn around and as you do the strangest thing happens you find yourself in that bookshop you turn back to face the door to see the shelves the bookshop is back as a normal bookshop to the member of staff in this bookshop you ask about what was here before and they tell you about the bakery and the incredible baker that used to own that bakery and how this bookshop was opened on the site of the bakery and that was hundreds of years ago and this has been in the family for generations as a bookshop and you leave the bookshop having looked at a few more of the books you continue on through the town heading to a tavern asking if they have a room for the night you head up to the room you settle down in the room and while relaxing you think about the experience think about what you've written and how that written work is now stored in a magical room that seems to appear and disappear you realize that it's only a few more weeks until the night when the moon is in the right place the tide is just right and you know from your memories from writing from connecting with the baker and their experience where you'd have to go to find that room and so you stay here for a few more nights spending time in this area during the days before making your journey towards the coast and you know where you're heading on the coast and you stay in a hotel near the shore and then on the day the moon's just in the right place you head out to sea and you don't do it on a raft you have a slightly better boat and you row out from the shore you reach the point you need to be at you drop an anchor dive in swim down into that cave and you find that chamber you open the door to discover a room crammed with mushrooms unused for centuries going through their natural life cycle here but unchecked you take some of those mushrooms head back to the boat head back to the shore and back at the hotel room you wonder what you should do it feels like the mushrooms need someone to be a baker someone to make use of them someone to be the caretaker of the mushrooms to harvest them to keep them in check you explore whether you can find any of the relatives of the baker and you find one relative who lives in the mountains and so a few days later you head into those mountains trekking up in the mountains following a mountainous path up into the snow the wind rushing around your head finding your way to an old mountain temple you head into that mountain temple knock on the door and a solitary person answers the door you explain who you are where you came from you tell the story of the baker you explain about the mushrooms and this distant relative has led a very spiritual life seeking in happiness and peace searching for the meaning of life and you explain that while they're up here on their own year after year seeking the meaning of life they're missing out on what the baker discovered about the meaning of life that the meaning of life is to bring happiness and joy to others is to reach the end of your life without regrets aware that you're going to live on in the hearts and minds of those who knew you in the changes you've made in those lives you've touched and the baker decided that was the meaning of life and they lived that life and you share some of those mushrooms with this distant relative and they mix up some tea with the mushrooms and together you both drink that tea and have a shared experience something which seems hallucinated yet seems almost real in that both of you were joined in sharing that experience together and they experience the life of the baker they learn what the mushrooms can do they find a deep insight that stimulates them to make a change in life to find a use for the mushrooms in a life they can create that's compatible with them and they accept that they'll become the keeper of the mushrooms every year on just the right night they'll gather up and harvest the mushrooms and they'll find somebody who they can begin to train up as an apprentice who can then take over from them when the time is right and they thank you for your support and for the changes you'll make to the lives of many by helping this one person to see things in a whole new way and you descend the mountain and you've had visions of what the future will hold how things will change because of your actions and it brings a deep and warm fuzzy feeling within you and it's a long journey home but once home you reflect on the experience you had you're curious about visiting that town again exploring that bookshop and meeting again with that distant relative of the baker and once home you've held on to some of the mushrooms and from time to time you sprinkle a little bit of mushroom powder on the top of your drinks and not only does it help you feel so peaceful and calm but it gives a certain connection and understanding somehow you have a deeper connection with those mushrooms than when others consume them because of the experience you've had then you head to bed and feeling so relaxed and deeply comfortable you drift and float peacefully asleep into slumberland