Bedtime with Captain EJ.
Today we will be up on the Honey Bee Hilltop,
Where we can look out over all there is to see.
Clouds slowly roll into our view as if they want to show us something.
All you have to do is close your eyes,
Get cozy,
And listen to the sound of my voice.
Captain EJ will lead the way.
EJ,
Let's begin.
You are here,
At the top of a tall,
Quiet hill.
Look your head all the way to one side until you can feel a little stretch.
The sun is setting in vivid shades of orange and pink.
Look your head all the way to the other side,
To look at the yellow sun as it gives way to the purple night.
Bring your gaze back to center and take a slow,
Deep breath in through your nose.
Feel your inhale make space in your chest for the fresh air.
Then slowly breathe all the way out through your mouth,
And notice the puffy blanket of gray clouds that slowly roll in overhead.
You lay down in the grass to feel its coolness against your outline.
More fluffy clouds arrive and thunder when they bump into each other.
The once vibrant sun seems to tuck itself behind the grayness of the clouds,
Which have become a mass above you up high on this hill.
The longer you look at them,
The more you begin to see them as corresponding shapes.
You can see a heart,
A crown,
And even a dragon with fluffy cloud wings.
Instead of wishing the sun would come back,
For this moment,
You sit comfortably with the clouds.
The sky seems full now,
Whereas before,
A clear sky felt wide open.
You wonder to yourself if the clouds feel happier now because they have other clouds around them.
What is it like a day in the life of an average cloud?
Now that you're looking at them assembling overhead,
Squishing themselves into every possible place,
You can feel the sky's fullness in a way that helps you understand yourself.
Clouds are water droplets that are perfectly suspended in midair,
Neither here nor there,
Yet always present.
All of what you think,
Feel,
And experience in a day are like clouds forming within you.
As still more clouds gather above,
Your mind is brought back to when you felt so much inside your own self,
So much in your heart,
That it felt full,
Or maybe even a little heavy.
Bring your awareness back to your breathing,
Which is steady and unending,
Even when you don't notice it.
Just as the clouds thunder when they bump into each other,
Crowding the fluffy edges of other clouds in the sky,
Your own fullness can sometimes be noisy.
It's nothing to be afraid of as long as you listen to what it's trying to tell you.
Take another slow,
Deep breath in through your nose.
Feel your chest rise and again feel the space created between your ribs.
Make it as big as possible.
Then slowly use your belly muscles to breathe all the way out through your mouth.
Up on this hilltop,
You feel like you are on top of the world,
And indeed you are.
But this whole entire world is under one single sky.
When these clouds come out and cover up the sun like the fluffiest blanket,
You can pull that blanket up to your chin and hide within them.
Take another slow,
Deep breath in through your nose.
Feel your chest lift you up all the way into the clouds to lay amongst their puffy softness.
Then slowly breathe all the way out through your mouth.
And let yourself sink down,
Down,
Down,
Heavily into the clouds which hold you effortlessly.
The restless clouds do all the moving for you while you lie in perfect stillness,
Both inside and out.
You are delivered to a soft,
Bouncy cloud-filled world where there is so much to explore.
The textures and colors bring life to the otherwise dreary gray.
Up here,
Up close,
You can see swirls of white within the bigger cloud shapes that shimmer like silver linings.
The bright silver and white swirls make the darkest of the gray clouds look even darker.
But as you're moved over there,
Where the thunder is most pronounced,
You now see that this is how clouds tell each other when they need space,
When they're too squished in and don't have enough room to contain all that they do within them.
Each clap of thunder helps the clouds bump into each other just enough so they release all the water droplets into cleansing teardrops of rain.
Take another slow,
Deep breath in through your nose.
Feel the sensation of your heart beating once,
Twice,
Three times,
And notice where your edges are.
Then slowly breathe all the way out through your mouth.
As your chest falls back down to its regular size,
You drift back down to the all-seeing honeybee hilltop,
Back in the soft grass,
Laying in a warm,
Soothing rain from the clouds up above.
Now you know a secret from the clouds that we sometimes forget.
On the days,
Weeks,
Months,
Or even years when there only seems to be clouds around us,
Dimming our brilliance like a hidden sun,
The sun shines all the same.
No matter how much thunder,
Lightning,
Or rain you encounter,
Behind all of it there is a sun waiting to shine.
With your head in the clouds,
Seeing them up close,
Investigating each swirl of color,
We wait without waiting to shine again,
For the sun to peek back out.
Before you know it,
The last drop of rain has fallen on your cheek.
You sit up on your elbows in the tall grass and see that the clouds overhead are starting to thin out.
Take your slowest,
Deepest breath in through your nose.
Gather all you have inside you into your heart as your chest rises,
Filled with fresh air.
Then slowly breathe all the way out through your nose.
Take a deep breath in through your mouth,
And blow the clouds away.
What once was a thick,
Gray blanket is slowly revealing itself to be a soft,
Blue sky with fluffy bundles of pink cotton candy clouds.
The sun is just about done setting,
But it came out once more to shine its light and say good night.
You know the clouds will come back because clouds always do.
And each time they do,
They bring more to listen to and feel.
For now,
You lay back down in the grass and enjoy the last beams of sunlight shining down on you as they always will,
Even when you cannot see them through the clouds.
That concludes our story.
I can't wait to see you again.
Captain EJ,
Over and out.
