So just take a moment to allow your eyes to close and allow yourself to begin to relax.
And as you begin to comfortably drift to sleep,
I don't know whether you'll drift to sleep faster to the sound of my voice or whether it'll be to the spaces between my words.
And as you comfortably fall asleep,
You can take a moment to allow yourself to get comfortable and imagine a healing light softly,
Slowly and gently passing down from the top of your head to the tips of your toes.
Relaxing gently down through you as I count down from 10 to 1.
And with each count,
Your mind can quieten and calm as the muscles soften and relax.
And you can begin the process of drifting peacefully asleep from 10,
That healing light relaxing the muscles around the top of the head,
Around the back of your head gently,
Carefully,
Relaxing the muscles around the side of your head,
Around your temple,
Your forehead.
And with each out-breath that relaxation can deepen so peacefully,
So comfortably,
As it flows down around the eyes and around the ears.
Nine.
That relaxation moving down around the jaw,
Relaxing the jaw,
Allowing the tongue to relax,
The lips to relax,
The nostrils to gently relax.
With that relaxation moving carefully,
Slowly,
As that healing light passes down the back of the neck,
Softening and calming those muscles around the sides of the neck,
The front of the neck,
Down from the head.
Gradually moving that calming,
Healing light out across the shoulders,
The shoulder blades relaxing those muscles,
Like a deep massage passing through your mind and body.
Eight.
As that relaxation begins to move down those arms,
And I don't know which arm the relaxation will move down fastest,
Whether it'll be the right arm or the left arm,
But you can be aware of that healing light spreading gently down those arms,
Around the biceps,
Triceps,
Down into the forearms.
Seven.
Moving all the way down to the wrists,
The palms of the hands,
Down to the fingertips,
And perhaps as that relaxation continues through those arms,
With each out breath,
The arms begin to feel heavier,
Or lighter,
Or some other sensation as relaxation sets in.
And you know the process for sleep is that the body begins to relax,
And while the body becomes physically relaxed,
So the mind begins to drift and dream,
Initially to brief reveries,
Before settling on the first dream of the night.
Six.
And that healing light can spread down from the shoulders and down around the chest,
The upper back,
Softening and relaxing those muscles so gently.
Calming the breathing,
Helping you drift deeper and deeper into the experience.
Five.
The healing light moving down towards the stomach,
The lower back,
The sides,
Relaxing those muscles as it goes,
Bringing a deep sense of peace and calm to your upper body,
Releasing any tension,
Perhaps occasionally finding yourself shifting just a little to get more comfortable.
Four.
With that relaxation,
Spreading down around your buttocks,
Down into the upper parts of your legs.
Three.
Passing that relaxation down towards the lower parts of your legs,
Perhaps those legs feeling heavier and heavier,
Maybe as the body becomes deeply relaxed and your focus drifts inside more on what's going on for you in your mind.
You lose some awareness of the body as it becomes incredibly still.
Two.
The relaxation spreading down to your feet,
Calming,
Softly relaxing,
All the way down to the tips of your toes.
And one.
As a final wave of relaxation pulses gently through you,
From the top of your head down through your body,
All the way down to the tips of your toes,
As your mind begins to drift and dream and wander into tonight's sleep story.
And you find yourself out in your garden,
Tending to the plants,
Clearing away any old plants,
Trimming things that need trimming.
In some parts of your garden,
You churn up the soil,
You plant new plants.
You then go around areas of your garden,
Placing new grass seed,
Where the grass has begun,
To go bare,
At areas where you walk a lot across those bits of the garden.
And then you go around with a watering can,
Watering what you need to,
Before heading to a deck chair here in the garden,
And relaxing into the deck chair proud of all the work you've been doing,
Feeling that you've earned this moment of rest.
And you rest back in the deck chair,
Feeling the warmth of the sun on your face,
Feeling the occasional coolness of the breeze,
Smelling the scent of the flowers,
Hearing birds singing within the hedgerows and in the trees,
And the rustling of the leaves.
Almost feeling a part of the nature around you,
And as you rest and deeply relax,
You get this sense like you hear a soft,
Distant voice,
And at first you think it's just in your mind,
Perhaps like a dream,
Gently tapping on consciousness,
But then as you move your head very slightly,
You realise,
That gentle voice is coming from outside of your mind.
And so you open your eyes and look around your garden,
You can hear that voice,
You look in the direction you hear it coming from,
And you see,
Standing on the grass beside you,
A very small gnome,
Perhaps no taller than your hand,
And that small gnome has a delicate voice,
And you swing your legs around off of the deck chair.
You lean down to get closer to that gnome,
And the gnome says that they could do with your help,
And they start to explain how they need you to follow them,
Into a world of gnomes.
And you stand up,
Agreeing to follow,
And they walk you across your garden,
Towards an old oak tree that stands on the edge of your garden,
And then they walk up to the trunk of the tree.
They wave their hands in a specific pattern in front of the tree,
And glowing,
Pulsing,
Sparkling light forms before them,
And a small entrance seems to open up,
In the base of that tree.
And the gnome walks in and looks back towards you,
And you tell them that you can't fit in that hole,
And they shrug and acknowledge this,
Almost as if they'd forgotten you wouldn't be able to fit.
And they pull their bag around the side of their body,
Opening the pouch,
They take out a small mushroom,
No larger than a pea,
They hand you that mushroom and tell you to eat it.
You eat that pea sized mushroom,
You feel a tingling through your mind and body,
Right down to the tips of your fingers,
A little bit like pins and needles just for a moment,
Before you start to feel a euphoric,
Deeply pleasant feeling,
And a light spreads across you,
And in that light,
It's so bright you can't see anything around you,
But you feel something shifting within you.
And as the light dims and you can see your surroundings once more,
You find that you're no larger than the gnome,
You and everything you were wearing has somehow shrunk to the size of the gnome.
And the gnome explains that there's another type of mushroom that you can take that will reverse the effects of the first mushroom,
But for now,
You can follow them.
And so you follow them through that portal into the tree,
And instead of walking into the tree,
You find walking through the portal,
That you come out in a whole different landscape.
As you look back,
It's almost like you can see the same oak tree,
With the same portal like entrance,
Except this tree is situated in an open field,
And before you is a hustle and bustle.
Hustling and bustling,
Town of gnomes,
There's houses and streets,
There's trees and wildlife,
All the gnomes are talking and interacting with each other.
But as they notice you,
They stop and look,
Some gasping.
And the gnome guides you down through the street,
Heading down towards a grand looking building,
Knocking on the door of that building,
Before opening the door and entering and guiding you in with them.
And inside the building is wooden floor with large dense rugs covering that floor.
And the two of you walk across the large dense rugs,
Heading towards an old looking gnome with a thick white beard,
Resting in a chair.
They introduce you as the gardener,
And the old gnome talks to you and says that they need your help.
They've been watching you across the years,
As you've tended to your garden,
And looked after it so well,
That you seem to have an affinity with nature,
And at just understanding things on a deep level intuitively,
They tell you about a tree in their land,
That's the tree of life,
It's the tree that allows their land to exist as it does.
As this separate realm.
But recently that tree has been damaged and has started to die.
And if the tree dies,
Their realm disappears.
And everything in this realm disappears with it.
And they need your help to look at that tree and see if there's anything that can be done.
And you agree to help.
And you set off with the gnome that came here with you.
They show you through the landscape,
Down towards that tree,
And the tree is some distance from this space.
And so you ride mice towards that tree,
Riding through the landscape.
You asking the gnome about this place,
Where it is,
How it formed.
What happened before the tree?
And what would happen if the tree disappears?
And what would happen after the tree?
And they explain they'd have to escape to the human world and make their home there.
Rather than in this gnome world,
Where they can live free and open,
Rather than hiding themselves.
And you make the journey all the way to that tree,
Dismount from the mice,
Head over to the tree.
And you see it somehow become cracked,
Following a branch.
And right down,
Almost into the heart of its trunk.
And to these gnomes this is a large tree,
But to you,
You know it's probably a bonsai tree.
And you say that you think you can help.
And you start getting to work on the tree.
You get some natural fibers,
You wrap them around the trunk,
Pulling the trunk together.
You start fixing up that tree.
And as you do,
You begin to form an idea that might help.
And you ask,
What is it about this tree that brings life to this land?
And the gnome explains that this tree is intimately connected through its roots with this landscape.
And this is the only one of its species here.
And they say that you can see that this is a magical tree and it's intimately connected.
Because under low light,
You can notice the roots glowing a soft blue that signals their connection with the landscape.
And you say you've got an idea and so you want to test that idea.
And you take a couple of cuttings from this tree.
And you head to different locations away from the tree.
You plant those cuttings.
You water them.
And you say you want to just see if they take hold and if the cuttings have the same properties when they take hold as the main tree.
And in this land,
Time passes different to in the human world.
So days can pass here,
Where time seems to stand still in the human world.
As if the portal itself is just a point in time.
And so you spend a number of days staying with this gnome,
Everyday heading out to those cuttings.
Watering them,
Nurturing them and checking in on the main tree.
And after a number of weeks,
You notice that the cuttings have started to grow roots and take hold.
And under low light,
You can see that those roots glow a delicate blue.
And seem to be equally as connected to the landscape as the main tree.
And this confirms your idea that if they want to survive here and reduce any risk of any issues,
Perhaps they need to have more than one tree that maintains this space,
This alternate world.
And so you feed back to the elder about your findings.
You feed back that the main tree is doing very well,
Is repairing itself very well.
But that cuttings also grow when looked after.
And that if more cuttings can be grown and then take cuttings from the cuttings as they grow up,
Then the tree can become something that is so ubiquitous in the world.
Hopefully if anything happened to just one of the trees,
Nothing would happen to the world itself.
And the elder says that the only way to know if that would work is to consult the oracle.
And they ask you to go with the other gnome,
To talk with the oracle.
And so the two of you set off on your mice,
Riding through the landscape.
You ride all day until it's night time.
You settle down by a fire,
Camp for the night.
Enjoying each other's company,
You being told all about gnome lore and legends.
And the next morning carrying on the journey.
Until eventually you see a palace in the distance,
Rising over the horizon.
Arriving at the palace and asking to see the oracle.
And you are shown through the palace and up a tall tower.
And the oracle is sat there meditating in this tall tower.
And without coming out of their meditation,
They seem to psychically project communication into your mind.
Asking what you are here for and you explain.
And this oracle who remains in this meditation,
Says that this meditation allows them to remain on the same frequency as the world around them.
Connected to all beings here,
All life.
And they focus in on their connection with the tree,
And with the new trees.
And they put the idea out there about whether it's accurate that the tree and the new trees,
That any of them existing,
Is enough to maintain this world.
And they say that the tree communicating with them,
Is telling them that that's true.
That these trees are intimately connected with the fabric of the world when their roots grow.
And so having more of the trees,
Means less chance if any one tree gets damaged,
Of something going wrong and this world disappearing.
You ask,
How this world develops if it needs these trees to be here?
And after a short pause,
Where the oracle listens to the tree.
They say that it came down to the first gnome.
The first gnome used magic to create a portal.
As the world of humans stopped believing in magic,
And started being fearful of the unknown.
They wondered whether they could create a land elsewhere,
Where they could live openly in communities,
Being themselves.
And they opened a portal,
And they infused a tree with magic,
Which they brought through the portal with them,
And into the void through that portal.
They passed that tree,
And the tree's roots imbued with magic,
Began to fill the void with a landscape,
And all the soil and all the other plants.
And the entire landscape,
From the wishes and dreams of that gnome,
Carried through the magic,
Into that tree,
Into those roots,
Mirroring the world the tree had come from.
And so that tree,
Since then,
Had been the sole provider of maintaining this landscape.
And as generations went by,
The old stories drifted into legend,
And then faded from memory.
But that tree still stood tall,
And the message that the tree brings life to the land remained.
And generation after generation,
That was communicated so strong,
As to make sure that the tree was looked after,
And if the magic of the roots ever failed,
Then this world would go back to being a void.
But it doesn't have to be just carried in the roots of the one tree.
If a cutting is taken from the tree,
Then the roots of any cuttings are the roots of that tree,
Maintaining this land.
And after seeing the oracle,
You both head back,
Stopping on your journey,
Camping another night,
Continuing your journey the next day,
Confirming that cuttings work as well as the original tree,
But to get cuttings you have to be delicate,
You can't just chop a tree to pieces for cuttings.
You take a small piece,
Let it grow,
Take another small piece,
And as those pieces grow into trees,
So cuttings can be taken from them.
And you teach how to get cuttings from the tree,
How to grow those cuttings into trees of their own.
And some of the cuttings are grown as trees outside of the main landscape,
So that if anything ever happened to the trees in the landscape,
More trees could be planted,
And everyone was encouraged to grow their own tree.
And each tree would take years to grow to full size,
But now the land was going to be filled with these trees.
And you're thanked for your help,
And the gnome shows you back,
Through the portal,
Back to your garden,
Then hands you a mushroom,
You consume that mushroom and grow back to full size.
And in your garden you notice it's as if no time has passed,
But in your mind,
You feel like you've had weeks away.
And it creates a little confusion to you,
Sit back down,
Continue resting in your garden,
Carrying on what you were doing before you went in to the gnome land.
When to you it feels like a lot of time has passed and perhaps you should be getting on with other things,
But you decide to sit in the garden for a while,
You ponder the experience in that gnome land.
You wonder how often gnomes visit this land,
You don't really hear of gnomes visiting nowadays.
And after resting for a while in the garden,
You do another round of watering where you need to water,
As the evening sets in you head inside your home.
You make yourself something to eat and drink.
You rest down by the fire,
Eating that food,
Drinking that drink.
You decide you'd love to learn more about the times when gnomes and other creatures lived within this world,
You'd always assume they were just fairy tales and stories for children.
But knowing that it was real makes you want to learn more.
When you're reading,
With a different mindset and a different understanding,
You head to bed and drift peacefully asleep.
And the next day,
You head to the local town,
Visit the local library.
Walking into the library,
Seeing dust motes floating delicately in the beams of light,
Softly passing through the narrow windows.
The smell of old books.
The dull sound within the library as all sound and reverberations seem to be absorbed by the carpeted floor in the books.
You find your way round to the myths and legends section and you find an old book about gnomes.
You sit down at a table in the library and begin to read that book.
Reading about the legend of the gnomes.
How they first seem to appear in this land.
What humans used to think of those gnomes.
The magic they used to possess.
And you find it fascinating,
Learning about those gnomes.
Now that you're reading this,
From a perspective that what you're reading is probably true.
And you continue to read that book.
You look at the pictures,
Seeing some of those drawings,
Questioning their accuracy as they're drawn from what people say gnomes are like.
But having met gnomes yourself,
You know they don't look exactly like these drawings portray.
You learn about the gnomes disappearing one day.
How it was almost as if they entered rings around trees and were never seen again.
And since then,
Occasionally children would tell stories of how they saw gnomes at the end of the garden.
And it looked like gnomes occasionally chose to visit the human realm.
But they really just came to visit.
They weren't actually living here.
And after reading,
And finding it fascinating learning the history of the gnomes.
You wonder whether the gnomes themselves have any books or any history that they could teach from their perspective.
You head back home.
You write a letter to that gnome,
Saying you'd love to learn more about their civilization,
About the history of the gnomes from their perspective.
And if they've got any writings on that,
That they'd be willing to share.
But they share that with you.
You place that letter near the tree.
You head into your home and head to bed.
The next day you see the letter is gone.
And a few days later,
Next to the tree,
You see a tiny wrapped up gift.
A small gift,
The size of the tip of your thumb.
Wrapped in brown paper.
A string tied around that,
And the most perfect bow.
And next to that is a small wicker basket.
With a tiny bit of red material draped over the basket.
You take the two items into your home.
Place them down on your dining room table.
Carefully unwrap the gift and you see an old book.
Incredibly tiny old book.
Too small to be able to open and handle.
You remove the material from the top of the basket.
And inside the basket is a small glass bottle with the tiniest bit of cork you've ever seen in the top of that bottle.
And a little note.
You carefully open the note.
You get a magnifying glass to read that note.
And it says to shake up that bottle,
Which will convert the liquid into a gas.
And that gas is heavier than air and will sink down.
And pour that gas over the book.
And it will spread around the book and enlarge the book to human proportions.
So you carefully shake that bottle until the liquid turns to a gas.
Using your fingernails of your thumb and your forefinger,
You pop the cork out of that bottle.
You tip the bottle upside down and the gas falls down onto the book,
Enveloping the book.
Begins to sparkle and twinkle and fizz gently.
And the book then expands getting larger and larger on the table until it's the size of a large hard covered book.
And as you open that book,
So you notice you can understand the language inside.
That it doesn't look like a language you know,
But as you start to read it,
You instinctively seem to just read it in your language.
And you don't quite know how that's happening.
And so you sit down for an evening by the fireplace and you read that book.
Absorbing yourself in reading the stories of the history of the gnomes.
You read about their perspective of life before passing into their own land.
You read about how they were all informed that there is this new land to inhabit.
And what it was like in those early years of that land forming.
Reading about their magic,
Their portals and how this land has a very different concept of time to the human world.
How portals to the human world are always a fixed point in time.
With the other side of the portal being too.
A time that's constantly moving.
And so they may have portals which they can pass through,
Which were situated centuries earlier.
And so one side of the portal is centuries in the past,
Yet the other side of the portal in the gnome land,
Centuries have moved on.
You read about how gnomes live for hundreds and in some cases even thousands of years.
And some are known or thought to be immortal.
And many choose their lifespan.
And you find this book deeply fascinating.
So fascinating you barely make it through much of the book before you have to go to bed.
But you look forward to reading this book and learning more over the coming days.
And with this new discovery,
This new mission you're on to learn more about these gnomes that you've only just discovered are real.
You head to bed with new thoughts in your mind,
Feeling a deep sense of connection to a broader world than you knew existed before.
And you drift and float so peacefully,
So comfortably asleep,
Into slumberland.
