The Red Rose: Bedtime Story

In this love-themed sleep story, a woman sitting on a park bench with a red rose reminisces about her grandmother and a mysterious stone tablet from her childhood.

Drifting into reverie, she explores a building, finds a cozy room, and reminisces about discovering the tablet in a garden. Holding the tablet, she feels as though she's floating in a pool, which leads her to insights about the tablet's origins. She witnesses an ancient culture and its development, understanding the tablet's message. Rejoining her loved one, they play Pooh Sticks by a stream and share the tablet's story while watching the sunset. Together, they return home and fall asleep.

Transcript

So take a moment to close your eyes and begin to relax.

And as you begin to relax,

I'll just tell a story in the background.

And while I'm telling that story,

I don't know whether you'll find yourself relaxing deeper with your in-breaths or your out-breaths or perhaps with the words that I use or maybe even the spaces between my words.

And as you drift comfortably asleep,

You can have a sense of a woman sitting on a bench in a park.

And she's looking around that park,

Looking out over the grass,

Looking at the bushes,

The trees,

People walking dogs,

Couples walking along with each other,

Noticing the blue sky and the way the clouds are moving across the sky.

And she's holding a red rose and she's twirling that red rose lightly between her fingertips.

And she looks down at that rose in her hand and gently strokes the waxy petals of the rose.

And a pleasant feeling and a smile comes to the woman as she strokes the petals and she feels a sense of love,

Of happiness.

And placing that rose gently down beside her on the bench,

She stands up,

Walks across the park over to some steps.

And she walks down the twenty steps and as she walks down those twenty steps,

So she almost counts them in her mind,

Walking down those steps to a lower part of the park,

Counting in her mind twenty,

Nineteen,

Eighteen,

Going deeper down those steps,

Seventeen,

Sixteen,

Fifteen,

Fourteen,

Thirteen,

Twelve,

Eleven,

Ten,

Finding herself beginning to drift into a reverie,

Drift into a pleasant inner experience,

Nine,

Eight,

Seven,

Six,

Going all the way down those steps,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One,

And walking off the bottom step.

And walking across a paved area,

Noticing the sound of her footsteps as she walks across that paved area,

Feeling the breeze on her skin,

Being aware that her mind is beginning to drift and wander.

And she walks across that paved area,

And the other side of the paved area,

She enters a building,

And as she enters the building,

So she notices the way the building is darker,

The change in the sound of her footsteps,

And she walks through the building from room to room,

And down a corridor,

Until she finds the room she's looking for,

And she walks into that room,

And it's the coziest,

Most pleasant room,

And she walks into that room,

Feeling the warmth and the comfort in the room,

Sits down into a comfortable chair,

And as she relaxes down into that comfortable chair,

So she picks up a picture beside her,

And it's a picture of her grandmother,

And she looks and smiles,

She looks at that picture of her grandmother,

And starts to notice how her mind begins to wander,

And she starts to think about a memory when she was a younger girl,

And as this younger girl,

She's playing in her back garden,

Her grandmother's laughing with her,

Chasing her around,

They're hugging,

Then she runs off to the end of the garden,

And as she runs into the trees at the end of the garden,

She's running around among those trees,

And hears that the ground beneath her feet at a certain point,

Sounds slightly different,

And so she stops,

And with her hands she digs down,

And finds a box,

And inside that box,

Is a tablet,

With some writing on it,

And it looks like a stone tablet,

And she can't read or understand the writing,

But she knows it has some significance,

And so she puts it back in that box,

And takes that box away with her from the trees,

And takes it up to her bedroom,

And as she's grown up,

So she's kept that box with her,

Knowing one day she'll be able to read the tablet,

And frequently she researches,

Trying to find what it might say on that tablet,

She's never taken it to anyone,

Never shown anyone that tablet,

But she's sure there's something important on it,

And so she's drifting in that pleasant reverie,

Sitting comfortably in that room,

She places the photo of her grandma back down beside her,

She picks up the box from the other side of her,

Places it on her lap,

Opens that box,

Takes out the tablet,

And can feel the weight of that tablet in her hands,

The coolness of that tablet in her hands,

And she looks at that tablet,

Wondering what it means,

And almost every day for years and years,

She's taken the tablet out of the box and looked at the tablet,

And tried to figure out what it means,

And this day while she's looking at the tablet,

Her mind begins to wander,

She starts to get this feeling of floating,

Almost like that feeling of relaxing and floating in a warm swimming pool,

Resting on your back,

Gazing up at the sky,

And she has that floating feeling,

And she places the tablet back into the box,

And rests the box on her lap,

And closes her eyes,

And allows her attention to come to that floating feeling,

To drifting and floating in her mind,

And as she does,

So she begins to gain some insight to the tablet,

And she doesn't know how she's gaining this insight,

She assumes perhaps it's because she's looked at the tablet so often,

Studied the tablet,

Studied different languages,

Studied ancient languages,

To try and work out what the tablet says,

And so she just allows herself to go with the experience,

And as she does,

She has this sense like she's flying,

Floating through the sky,

So easily,

So effortlessly,

And then has a sense of floating and drifting back in time,

And she floats and drifts back through time,

Thousands of years into the past,

And settles,

Resting in an area surrounded by what looked like really old buildings in the middle of a forest,

And she stands up,

And can see people milling around,

See hustle and bustle,

Seeing people going about their daily lives of this ancient culture,

Deep in a forest,

And she watches as they go about their business,

And she can hear them talking and yet can't understand them,

And she continues to watch and look around,

And wonder what this experience is,

And as she continues to watch,

Look around,

And wonder about the experience,

So she begins to notice that somewhere in her mind she can hear the chink chink chinking of carving on a stone tablet,

And so she follows that sound as it gets louder and louder,

And sees someone chiseling out the stone tablet that she's got,

And she watches them chisel that stone tablet,

And there's someone talking to them while they chisel the stone tablet,

Seeming to tell them what it is to put on that tablet,

And so she watches,

As horse and cart ride by from time to time,

The person seems to think about what to be written next,

Before delivering a line or two,

Which then gets chiseled into that stone,

And she's trying to work out what it is that it says,

And she continues to watch this ancient culture,

Seeing the way they're interacting,

Seeing the gestures,

While this person conveys their message,

And then after a little while,

She starts to see things change again,

This ancient culture begins to disappear,

Almost like time turning back,

Turning back through time,

And as time seems to turn back,

So she can notice how the culture begins to disappear,

The area becomes more forest,

And she notices just a small tribe,

With some wooden huts,

Living in harmony with the land,

Carving out a small area,

Catching enough food and gathering enough food to live off of,

And she watches as this proto-culture,

These people which obviously lived prior to forming the culture,

And she watches them as they go about their business,

And she thinks she begins to understand what is on the tablet,

What messages were being written down and conveyed,

And why,

And then,

As she begins to grasp at that realization and understanding about what's on the tablet,

So time seems to move back further,

And she finds herself at a time before anyone arrived,

And she can see different animals,

She can hear the sound of the forest,

The rustling leaves,

The sound of rain from time to time,

The feeling of the breeze,

And she's aware that it would be very hot outside of the shade,

And she begins to realize this is before the culture have arrived,

This is what the world was like in this area,

And she walks through the forest,

Walks out of the forest,

Finds her way out to a clearing,

Walks along by a river,

And she sees a tribe out here in the clearing by the river,

And there's just a few people,

And she watches on as those few people catch some fish,

And have some temporary accommodation,

And seem so calm and happy,

And they don't have much,

And yet they seem happy with what they've got,

And she realizes what's written on that tablet,

And that her mind has taught her this,

From this experience,

And just as her mind gives her that lightbulb moment of understanding what's on the tablet,

So she starts to hear the sound of a ticking clock,

Rhythmically,

Gently,

Ticking out the seconds,

Ticking through minutes,

And hours,

And as she focuses on that ticking,

So her experience fades away,

And she finds herself sitting in that chair,

Gazing over at a clock on the mantelpiece,

Above a fireplace,

And she watches that clock as it ticks,

And she now understands what's written on the tablet,

She understands the messages being conveyed,

And realizes that the tablet was all to do with approaching life and the world around you,

And how things can sometimes run ahead of you,

How your focus can be on the wrong places,

Your focus can be on progress,

Rather than working through the journey,

And taking time to stop,

And see where you're going,

And whether what it is you think you're heading towards is what it is that you want,

And as she gains that insight,

So she feels a sense of love,

Thinking back about her grandma,

And that day that she found the stone tablet,

And now at her age,

Thinking about the messages it's conveyed,

And all the years in between,

Of contemplating to discover this,

And she finds her way back out of the building,

And she walks back across the park,

And goes back to that bench,

And she sees the rose still resting there,

And she sits down and picks up the rose,

And she feels a warmth,

A comfort,

A sense of deep appreciation for the moment,

While she waits,

And after a few moments she gets a slight tingling feeling inside her,

Like a little bit of energy,

Butterflies,

As the person she loves walks towards her smiling,

She hands them the rose,

And then they put their arm around her,

And she feels the connection,

And together they walk in step across the park,

And they walk down to a stream,

And they don't really say anything to each other as they walk,

They just enjoy being in the moment,

Enjoy each other's company,

Walking to that stream,

And the closer they get to the stream,

The more they can hear the bubbling movement of the water,

And they pick up a few twigs from the ground as they approach the stream,

Both sharing the same idea,

And smiling at each other knowingly,

And they walk to a bridge over the stream,

And they stand on the bridge,

Facing upstream,

And they drop a twig each down into the stream,

And turn around and look the other way,

To see whose twig comes out from under the bridge first,

And they watch as those twigs race their way down,

Bouncing,

Curling with the water,

And see whose twig stays in the lead,

And then they do this again and again,

And they just feel this deep connection with each other,

A profound understanding,

And they walk and sit on a bench,

Holding each other,

Relaxing with each other,

And after a while,

The woman starts saying about the stone tablet,

About having figured out what the stone tablet is about,

And she shares what that tablet is about,

And shares about just being in the moment,

About what's important,

And about what sort of things are worth attaching to,

And what things are worth letting go,

And after they've spoken a while,

So the sun begins to set,

The temperature begins to change slightly,

The moonlight sparkles across the water,

And stars twinkle in the sky,

And the two of them find their way back to the building,

Back through the park,

Down the steps,

Down to that building,

They enjoy the evening,

Before settling down in bed,

Holding each other tight,

Feeling the warmth of each other,

Finding their breathing synchronised,

And drifting and floating together asleep,

Relaxing deeply,

Asleep for the night,