Are you ready to meditate with Kari?
Make sure that you're comfortable in your bed and everything is just right in your room.
The light is just right.
You're wearing your comfy pajamas so that your body feels nice and relaxed.
You can listen to the story and let go of your busy,
Busy day.
Stephanie was not in a good mood.
She'd had a really busy,
Hectic week.
Two weeks ago she'd been on vacation with her family and when she got back she had lots of homework to catch up on at school.
This was stressful.
It felt like she was doing at least three hours of homework every night.
She didn't get to do anything fun.
It was every night after school,
Catching up,
Catching up,
Catching up.
She'd missed a couple of tests that she couldn't retake,
Unfortunately,
And her grades had got lowered because of that.
This was even more stressful for her.
She didn't like it when her grades dropped because she always put extra pressure on herself.
She wanted to do really good in school.
She wanted to get good grades so that she could go to college,
So that she could do what she wanted and be whatever she wanted when she grew up.
But Stephanie knew that she had to get good grades,
Do well in college to possibly get the job that she wanted to get.
So she worked hard and this last week had been horrible.
She hadn't been able to play out with her friends.
She'd missed gymnastics one time because she'd just got too much to do.
She was so overwhelmed and so stressed and so tired and so fed up and tense.
Her body was full of anxiety,
Which made her extra grumpy.
She was losing her patience very easily.
She was snapping at her mom.
She was getting upset with her family.
Her friend just wanted to make her cry or scream.
She needed to go to Moonbow Forest ASAP.
Maybe Luna could help.
She didn't care any longer how much homework she had.
She needed to get out of there,
To escape,
To renew,
To rebuild herself,
To get balanced again,
To feel good again.
That's all she could focus on.
She walked over to a dressing table and sat down on a chair.
Even the chair was squeaking more than normal.
She thought maybe one of the legs was going to break underneath her or something and this was stressing her out.
Why is it when you're stressed that everything just piles up,
One thing after another?
She pushed the noise of the squeaky leg on her chair out of her mind,
Opened her jewelry box and pulled out her magical earrings.
She didn't waste any time.
She put the left one in and then put the right one in and sat there and closed her eyes.
She stayed still and quiet so she could feel all the different sensations in her body.
For some reason,
Today,
Her elbows tingled.
Her elbows were tingling and then that spread down her arms into her fingertips.
The ends of her fingers felt like she'd got ants in them.
They were very,
Very busy and bumbly and tingly as if there were bees and ants buzzing right there in her fingertips.
Her nose started to tickle.
She reached up and scratched the tip of her nose and then she sneezed.
And then she saw the veil.
The veil between this world and the world of Moonbow Forest,
A favorite place to go.
She stood there and looked through the curtain,
Shimmering just like it always does,
Transparent enough to be able to see shapes and shadows through it.
She pulled the curtain to one side with her left hand and stepped onto the grass.
She felt the prickly but soft and spongy grass underneath her feet and smiled internally.
Nothing changed on her face,
She just could feel this warm,
Glowing smile happening inside of her body without even trying,
As if the energy in the grass was instantly pouring into the bottom of her feet,
Making her feel grounded and safe and happy and secure,
Already,
Instantaneously.
The magic of grass,
She thought to herself,
How wonderful.
She whittled her toes and pulled at the grass with her toes.
It was so spongy and thick,
It felt like a big,
Plush carpet.
And then she looked up and looked around.
She was right there,
Like she always is,
In the opening of the forest.
She spotted Luna straight away.
Luna was reaching up,
Trying to nibble some of the leaves in one of the trees.
Stephanie shouted,
Luna!
And Luna looked at her and smiled.
Stephanie ran over to Luna.
When she got to her,
She put her arms around Luna's neck and pulled her head down,
Rubbed her forehead on Luna's forehead and connected with her for a second.
She took a big,
Deep breath,
Her eyes still closed.
She inhaled Luna's fragrance.
Luna smelt like unicorns,
Candy floss and white chocolate chips.
Stephanie opened her eyes and pulled back and smiled at Luna,
The biggest smile.
Oh,
I need this place so much,
She said.
I have had the worst week of my entire life.
I am so tired and so stressed.
Stephanie started to tell Luna about her crazy workload from school because she'd been on vacation and how she'd had so much homework and it was just horrible,
Horrible,
Horrible.
When she'd finished telling Luna everything,
Luna said,
Climb on my back,
Let's see if we can fix this,
Shall we?
I'm going to take you to a very special place here in Moonbow Forest that you've never been to before.
Stephanie climbed up onto Luna's back and grabbed a hold of her mane.
She was excited.
Oh,
A new place.
Seemed like Moonbow Forest was never ending.
Surprise after surprise after surprise.
Luna took a couple of steps forward and then started to fly up into the sky.
The wind was blowing through Stephanie's long hair.
She closed her eyes and took a big deep breath,
As if she was standing by the ocean or something and the waves and the wind were blowing at her,
Washing away all of her cobwebs,
All of her stress,
All of her worries.
She already felt 10 million times better just being there with Luna.
Luna flew for quite some time,
Taking her to who knows where.
They started to fly over a field of pink flowers.
It looked like a pink carpet down below,
There were so many pink flowers.
And then from where they were up above,
Stephanie could see that there was a big,
Giant,
Purple looking flower in the middle of all of the tiny pink flowers.
The purple flower in the middle looked like a big giant bush of purple flowers or something.
She couldn't quite tell from up above where they were,
But that's where they were going because Luna started to fly down closer towards the purple,
What looked like a bush of purple flowers.
She landed right next to it.
It was just a bush,
A purple flowery bush in the middle of the most beautiful pink flowers,
Tiny little flowers,
Hundreds and thousands of them,
Covering the floor.
And that's all that was there.
Luna said,
Sit down.
She motioned her head in the direction of the purple bush.
Stephanie felt a little bit confused.
I'm supposed to sit on this?
She said,
Yes,
Said Luna.
Make yourself comfortable.
Where are we?
Said Stephanie as she was climbing up onto the bush.
When she sat down on it,
It was surprisingly comfortable.
It felt like a giant beanbag or something.
It all kind of curved and squished and moved around her body until she felt she was completely enveloped in this purple bush that smelt like lavender.
She took a big deep breath.
Oh,
It smells so nice,
She said.
So relaxing.
Exactly,
Said Luna.
And then Luna made a whistle sound as if to say,
Attention,
Please.
And then she did it again.
Stephanie looked around and all of these pigeons started to fly from gosh knows where towards Luna and Stephanie and the purple bush.
Some of them were carrying things in their beaks.
Some of them were all grouped together,
Carrying big items of things with their beaks.
As if whatever they were carrying was too heavy to carry alone.
Luna said,
These are the petty pigeons.
The pigeons,
About five or six of them started to take off Stephanie's trainers.
They were pulling on the laces and then they pulled them off one by one and threw them on the ground.
And then with the tiny little beaks,
They pulled off her socks and exposed her toes to the world.
What are they doing,
Said Stephanie.
One of them was quite ticklish and it made her giggle and she said,
What's it doing?
Is it tickling?
Why are they tickling my feet?
She didn't quite hear what Luna said,
But then it registered petty pigeons,
Pedicure pigeons.
These are pedicure pigeons,
Stephanie said to Luna and Luna just smiled and nodded.
About 15 of the pigeons put a big tub of soapy warm water underneath Stephanie's feet.
And then about seven or eight of them on each leg started to rub lotion while her feet soaked.
The lotion felt cool on her skin,
Which was nice because it was warm.
It was a nice warm day there in Mumbo Forest.
And then Luna did another whistle.
Some tiny,
Tiny little birds flew from nowhere.
These are the finch facials,
She said to Stephanie.
The tiny little birds have got things tied around their waist,
Like belts where they were keeping little tools and creams and potions and things.
They all started to go about giving Stephanie a facial.
Oh,
Said Stephanie,
This is lovely.
The tiny little finch wings were rubbing cotton balls with toner and then exfoliator,
Lotions and potions and perfumes and tightening creams and all these different things all over her face.
She was getting a facial massage by the finch facials.
She was getting a pedicure by the petty pigeons.
And then Luna did this thing where she went like that through her nose nostrils.
Stephanie started laughing.
What are you doing?
But just as she said it,
It seemed like hundreds of little caterpillars came out of the pink flowers in the field,
Slowly inching their way towards Stephanie,
Climbing,
Tickling her as they did so,
Up her legs,
Up her arms,
Up across her body.
Little furry caterpillars,
All fluffy they were.
Some of them were quite big,
Quite long.
These were the ones,
Apparently,
That had a very specific job.
They started to do Stephanie's hair.
First of all,
They washed it,
Then they brushed it and they took so much time brushing it all gentle.
They massaged her head,
They put oils in her hair and leave-in conditioners.
They even sprinkled rose petals all over her head,
Tiny,
Tiny little rose petals.
And then the caterpillars,
Apparently,
They were called the curling caterpillars,
Rolled themselves into her dry hair.
They put some special spray all over her hair and they were like long curling rollers that were going to curl her hair.
Curly caterpillars.
The petty pigeons had filed,
Trimmed,
Painted her nails on her toes,
They'd done her cuticles,
They massaged her feet.
They removed any of the dead skin,
Which tickled a lot when they were filing away at her.
She couldn't help but laugh at that part.
And then they moved on to her hands.
Stephanie,
Through all of the attention,
Said,
Manny pigeons too?
Oh my goodness,
This is the best thing ever.
To look at her,
If you were looking from the outside,
It looked absolutely crazy.
She got pigeons and finches and caterpillars all over her doing their magic.
But it felt so good.
It was so relaxing.
It was everything she needed.
She felt pampered and loved.
She relaxed so much at one point that she felt like she was falling asleep.
At one point she did fall asleep.
She woke up with drool all over her face,
She was so relaxed.
All the little creatures had been working on her for about two hours.
And when they were finished,
They all just disappeared back to where they came from.
And Stephanie was laid there in the purple bush,
Feeling brand new.
She was all shiny and glowy,
Her toes and her fingernails and her hair,
Her facial.
Everything felt so good.
That was the best,
Bestest thing anyone could have ever done for me,
Luna.
She gave Luna the biggest hug.
Luna smiled,
Any time,
She said.
She nudged Stephanie to climb up on her back,
And they flew back to the veil between the two worlds.
Stephanie climbed down,
Gave her a hug again and said goodbye,
And she came back to the other side and found herself laying in her bed,
Her pink fingernails,
Pink toenails shimmered in the light in her bedroom.
She got up and walked over to her dresser and sat down and looked at herself.
She was all glowy and fresh and clean looking,
As if she'd just had a vacation.
Her hair looked amazing,
It was all wrinkly and curly and bouncy.
She'd never done it curly like that,
And she really liked it.
She took off her magical earrings and put them back in her jewelry box,
Until another time in the future.
The end.
