Sunset Over The Savannah

Visit the animals of the savannah at sunset on your own cozy cloud. Send a peaceful message to giraffes, rhinos, elephants, lions... and an aardvark before floating back to you bed, relaxed and ready to sleep.

This track was created in partnership with Jace Jensen -age 9. We hope you like it.

Transcript

Hello,

And welcome to bedtime.

Maybe you've had a long day,

Or a busy day,

Or maybe it's feeling hard to settle down to sleep.

Let's think about some of the other creatures of our planet and how they might settle down to go to sleep.

Come along on a journey to the African savannah to visit some very large and very busy animals.

Do you ever wonder what they're up to at bedtime?

The giraffes,

The elephants,

The lions,

The rhinos,

Or even the zebras?

Maybe we can help them settle down for the night before we settle down for our night in our beds.

To get ready for our journey,

We have to turn on our imagination.

We can remind ourselves that if we take the time,

We can imagine and pretend anything that we want,

And that can help us feel happy and safe and relaxed and good.

Let's practice imagining before we take our trip to the savannah.

First take a deep breath and imagine breathing in your favorite color.

See the color in your mind and imagine that it is the softest,

Swirliest kind of color that you've ever,

Ever seen.

If you could touch it,

It would feel like a blanket that you would want to wrap around yourself for a great big hug.

Next,

Let's take another deep breath and imagine that we can smell the air outside.

Just as if we were an animal who lives in the grasslands of Africa,

A bird who lives in the forest,

Or maybe a seal who lives in the ocean.

What animal would you be and what would the air smell like where you lived?

Imagine that you could take the deepest breath ever and fill your lungs with fresh and healthy air.

Now let the air flow out and feel how your body might be relaxing just a little bit.

Feel the muscles of your legs and arms and back and neck.

Feel the muscles in your feet and hands,

Fingers and toes.

Imagine just like a giraffe or zebra or bird or seal that your muscles moved you around,

Sometimes fast and sometimes slow,

All day long.

And now it's time for them to relax.

Can you feel your muscles relax just a little bit?

Next,

Imagine that you can listen to the breeze,

Just like the animals of the savannah listen to the messages on the breeze.

They turn on their ears all day long to hear the sounds of the prairie.

Is there danger?

Is there food nearby?

Where are my friends?

Imagine that you can hear quiet messages on the breeze right now and let a nice message come right into your heart.

And now let your body feel how comfortable you are becoming.

Your skin can feel the softness of your bed or your pillow and it can feel the pressure of your blanket on top of you.

Animals use their skin and fur to feel their surroundings to find a soft spot to lie down.

They feel their family snuggling around them and this helps them to know that they are safe as the day is ending.

As your body is feeling soft and comfortable at your bedtime,

Let's paint a picture for your mind so it can feel happy and quiet.

Imagine that the sky is beginning to turn from the bright blue of daytime into soft colors of evening.

Imagine that the sky is a huge canvas,

A beautiful painting,

And that someone with a brush has come to paint it the softest purple.

And then with a smaller paintbrush,

They add some pink streaks that blend in with the purple.

And then with an even smaller paintbrush,

They paint some swirls of yellowish gold.

Imagine that on one side of the painting,

A little white cloud floats onto the canvas.

This cloud looks soft and fluffy and as it moves in the sky,

The purple and pink and yellowish gold bounce and shimmer around the little cloud.

Now let's imagine that this cloud invites you to hop up onto it.

Oh yes,

You say,

And you imagine that you climb onto this cloud straight from your bed.

You see that this cloud is just the right size for your body.

It feels just the right amount of warm or cool.

It feels snuggly and wonderful.

As the cloud floats on with you snuggled into it,

You can feel the soft warm breeze on your face and ruffling your hair.

Your cloud gently drops down from the sky and you begin to see that you are floating over an African savanna.

You notice the waving grass.

Some is long and bendy and some is short and prickly.

You see a few trees dotted across the plain and as you float closer,

Your eyes begin to see the shapes of some animals.

You notice the tallest animals first.

A herd of giraffes with their long necks are gathered around a tree,

Using their flexible tongues to pick off the tasty leaves high up in the tree.

As you float toward them,

Only as close as feels comfortable to you,

You appreciate their long strong legs,

Their soft golden brown fur,

And their bendy necks.

A few giraffes look over toward your cloud and their big eyes recognize you as a friendly soul.

You wish them a peaceful evening of leaf munching and a restful night's sleep.

The gentle savanna breeze takes your wish right to them and as you see the fur on top of their heads flutter,

You know that the wind has delivered your message.

A little further across the savanna,

You see a herd of elephants and rhinos gathered around a muddy watering hole.

Your cloud begins to float you in their direction.

As the sun drops lower in the sky,

You can see the shadows of the elephants and rhinos getting longer and longer.

And then you notice your own shadow,

A little head peeking over the cloud,

Mixed in with the elephants and rhino shadows.

As your cloud nears the watering hole,

Only as close as feels comfortable,

You can hear a gentle splashing of water as the elephants and rhinos move in and out of the water at the edge of the watering hole.

The sound of rippling water is relaxing and you take a deep breath and let out a deep sigh.

The elephants with their enormous ears and sensitive hearing notice the sound of your peaceful sigh on the breeze and they raise their trunks toward the cloud.

You raise your arm to wave hello and send them a greeting on the breeze.

One little elephant looks up to you,

Meets your eye and sends you a quick trumpet in greeting.

And then he goes back to drinking water near his mama elephant.

The rhinos nearby raise their heads to the baby elephant's trumpet sound to see what's happening.

They watch curiously as your cloud floats over toward them.

Their eyes seem to question,

Is this a safe cloud?

A friendly cloud?

And you send them a message from your heart that you are friendly and you want to wish them a peaceful night.

As the message from your heart floats down to the rhinos,

You can see their eyes soften and a look of peace pass over their strong and powerful bodies.

Even the most powerful and strong bodies appreciate a chance to be peaceful and relaxed.

You think about your body for a moment and you feel how relaxed it is.

You notice that as you send out peaceful messages,

Your own body feels happy,

Strong and warm.

It feels good to share love with the world and especially to these beautiful animals as they get ready for bed.

Your body is getting sleepy as you drift along in the savannah sky.

Perhaps you feel a yawn coming and maybe you close your eyes for a moment.

But then,

After a few heartbeats,

You open your eyes again to see that your cloud has floated over a herd of zebras.

There are at least a hundred zebras standing close together as night begins to fall and the air gets cooler.

You notice that they shuffle a little closer to each other so that their bodies can warm one another up.

Their fur looks soft and cozy and you imagine as the night goes on,

They might come so close together that they will look like one enormous zebra.

You appreciate their beautiful stripes and the way they cozy up together to feel comfortable and safe.

You send them a wish from your heart that they have a warm and cozy night's sleep.

You imagine that this message blows across the back of all the zebras as they huddle together.

As you see the ripples and ruffles in their black and white fur,

You know that they got your good night wish.

As your cloud floats on,

The colorful sky begins to fade into a deep,

Rich blue.

You begin to see a few stars twinkling and you watch them sparkle as your cloud floats on.

When you check back on the savanna,

You see that you have floated near a family of lions.

The adult lions are stretched out in the grass at the base of a tree and three little cubs are wrestling in the grass beside them.

You can sense that the mama lion is wondering if her cubs will ever settle down to go to sleep.

She watches them,

She yawns,

And she settles in to wait patiently for all of their lion cub energy to wiggle out of their bodies.

You send a message down to float over the cubs.

From your heart,

You tell them that wrestling is so fun,

But stretching out and feeling comfortable and sleepy under the sky is also a good feeling.

As the breeze delivers your message,

The cubs look up at the sky.

They see the stars and tip over backwards to lie on their backs.

The mama lion looks up at your cloud and makes a thankful chuffing sound to thank you for helping her lion cubs settle in for the night.

As the stars come out and you have floated across miles and miles of the savanna,

You are feeling sleepy.

It's hard to keep your eyes open now as your cloud rocks you a little bit as you float gently back towards your bed.

You can't wait to feel your pillow and your blankets at the end of this delightful adventure.

You feel proud that you were able to help the savanna animals feel comfortable and loved,

And especially that you helped those three silly lion cubs go to sleep.

Before you close your eyes and float back to your bed,

You catch some movement down on the savanna and you squint in the dark to see what could be there.

Instead of a large and majestic savanna animal,

You notice a tiny aardvark scuttling across the savanna through the short scrubby grass.

This aardvark is nocturnal,

And instead of getting ready to sleep as the stars come out,

She is gearing up for an exciting night of searching for ants and termites to eat.

But did you know that she has a special bedtime job?

This little aardvark digs many burrows to rest in during daytime,

But she leaves those burrows behind each night,

Traveling far across the savanna.

As she leaves her cozy burrows behind,

Other small animals who need a place to sleep find the burrows and have a soft cozy bed just waiting for them.

Your heart feels happy thinking about this little bedtime helper,

And you send her a thank you message from your heart for being so sweet and helpful to others.

The aardvark stops running and looks up at your cloud as she hears your message on the night breeze.

After a minute,

The aardvark starts scuttling along again,

But you can tell by her scurry that she feels happy and proud.

Before you know it,

Your cloud has brought you back across the sky and to your room.

The cloud bumps softly into your bed,

And you gently roll right in.

You thank the cloud for this peaceful sunset savanna trip.

You hope that you can do it again tomorrow.

The cloud spins in a circle as it floats away,

And you can feel a loving message blow on the breeze from the cloud directly into your heart.

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