A Boy & His Dog (Sleep Meditation Bedtime Story)

Just take a moment to allow your eyes to close and allow yourself to begin to relax.

And as you take a moment to begin to relax,

I don't know whether you'll relax deeper to the sound of my voice or whether it'll be to the spaces between my words.

And as you begin to comfortably drift and float asleep,

I'm just going to tell this sleep meditation in the background.

It's a sleep meditation about a young boy who lives in a small little village.

And in that village is the most beautiful old church.

And that church sits at the heart of the village and it towers over the rest of the village.

It's only a small village,

Just a handful of roads,

Of houses,

A couple of village greens and a row with a few shops and cafes.

And this small boy and his dog are roaming around one of the parks.

And he can hear the rustling sound of the leaves of the trees around the outside of the park and the few trees dotted through the park.

He can smell the smell of freshly cut grass and still hear the sound of the gardener in the park just finishing up cutting that grass.

And as he walks near the flower beds,

He can smell the scent of the different flowers.

And he throws a tennis ball for his dog as far as he can.

And the dog chases after that tennis ball as it bounces and then hits a stone and bounces at an angle,

Meaning the dog has to try and jump at an angle and just misses that ball but seems to be more excited by missing the ball that it gets just a couple more seconds to chase the ball before grabbing that ball,

Looking over at the boy and then running to the boy,

Placing that ball at his feet and then crouching down as if prepared to run.

And the boy picks up that ball again,

Goes to throw it.

As a fake throw,

Watches the dog's reaction,

Noticing how attentive that dog is before then throwing it as far as he can again.

And this time the ball strikes a tree,

Bouncing off at a different angle.

And so that dog goes exploring and the ball rolls under a bush and the dog is sniffing around near the bush.

And while his dog is sniffing around trying to figure out how to get to the ball,

The boy just takes a few moments to enjoy watching the bees as they fly from plant to plant,

Just getting on with their work,

Seeming to have their own little system to how they work.

And he notices some butterflies landing on some purple flowers,

Extending their tongues into the flowers and drinking,

And he finds this all very curious and interesting.

And then his dog arrives back with that ball,

Drops it back down next to him.

And the boy picks up that ball and continues walking through the park with the dog hopping around his legs,

Wanting him to throw the ball again.

But the boy just keeps walking until the dog comfortably just joins in step with him.

And the two of them walk the rest of the way through the park.

And they walk out to just outside the churchyard.

The boy looks up at the church and he wonders whether it would be possible to be able to reach the bell using his slingshot.

And so he rests his elbows on the wall around the churchyard.

He looks at his slingshot.

He lines it up.

And he gets himself a couple of blueberries that he's got on him.

And he puts them on the wall.

He decides he'll start with blueberries just to see if he can get his aim right.

And the church bell seems surprisingly large for the size of the church.

For although the church is larger than all the other buildings around here,

It's still only a small village church.

And yet this bell seems so large.

And so he puts one of the blue bells into the slingshot,

Takes aim,

Closes one eye,

Lines it up,

Pulls back and then lets go and watches as that blue bell travels a short distance and then just lands in the churchyard.

And so he tries again with another blueberry,

Puts that into the slingshot.

But the same thing happens.

And so he puts the last few just in his mouth and just eats them while he tries to think of what the problem is.

And then he wonders whether it's because perhaps it's not heavy enough to travel.

So he tries with a stone.

He gets a small stone.

And as he fires that up towards the church bell,

He's surprised when he thinks it looks like it's missed.

But the church bell makes a really loud ding before making an equally loud dong.

And he gets a little startled by this and then realises that his stone didn't reach the bell.

It just happens that the bell ringers rung the bell just as he fired that stone.

And he realised that he wouldn't be able to fire a stone that high and that far.

And so he wonders whether there's any way he can make something travel far enough to hit the bell.

And he feels that from where he's standing,

He wouldn't be able to reach it.

But he has an idea.

So he gets some paper out of his backpack and he makes a few different designs of paper aeroplane.

And he tests them across the churchyard,

Trying to see which ones travel the furthest.

He flies one with broad wings and it travels slowly but seems to then circle up into the air and then down into the ground.

He tries one that's almost like a dart and it travels very fast but also very quickly just nose dives to the ground.

He tries lots of different designs until eventually he thinks he's mastered a design to make it travel far enough to reach the church.

Because on the ground he can throw it and it hits the wall quite forcefully so he knows it could travel further than it reached.

But he doesn't think it could travel up to that bell.

And so he decides to walk around to the other side of the church where there's a grand oak tree that's probably as old as the church itself.

And he walks to that oak tree.

He runs his fingers around that oak tree wondering what that oak tree must have seen over all these years of growing up alongside this church.

And he scrambles up into the branches and starts climbing up that oak tree,

Climbing higher and higher up the oak tree.

And the higher he climbs up that oak tree the more the branches sway.

And he's only a small boy and so he doesn't mind.

He just holds on and keeps climbing.

And once he's up near the top of that oak tree he settles himself in to a comfortable position,

Almost wedging himself in place to free up his hands.

He then takes out his finest paper aeroplane,

The one he's certain will make it to the bell.

And he's attached a small paper clip to the front of that plane that helps it in this design to keep that nose on track.

And he's only half as high as the tower of the church.

But the bell is quite large and so he feels from here he could probably reach that bell.

Embracing his back against the branches of the tree and keeping himself wedged against that tree.

He snaps his arm to throw that paper aeroplane with a sharp jolt up towards that bell.

And he notices as he does so the wind seems to go still.

And he watches as it glides higher and higher before hearing this tiny metal on metal clink and then watching as that paper aeroplane falls down from the bell down inside the tower.

And he's really excited that he's managed to create something that he could throw far enough to make a noise on that bell that he could reach something so high up when he's so small.

And he can hear the sound of voices coming from within the church.

Then he can hear those sounds sounding like they're getting closer.

And then here's the main entrance to the church open and the sound of someone talking and saying something as they walk out the entrance.

And he watches as they're looking around holding his paper aeroplane.

And he wonders whether it fell down and knocked them on the head.

And wondering where it came from and he watches as they look up at the tower and they look around the churchyard and he keeps quiet in the tree.

He watches as they walk around the church.

They walk under him under the tree.

They walk around the back of the church.

They walk all the way around the church and then back into the church again.

And he can hear them mumbling something again as they walk back into the church as if they're talking to the others in the church,

Probably saying that they couldn't find whoever threw the aeroplane.

And his dog is so patiently sitting at the base of the tree.

Just out of sight.

And he walks down from that branch climbing his way down to the next row of branches stretching down to the branches beneath that as the branches get thicker and thicker and the swaying gets less and less.

And then when he's down to the last few branches that are almost the main trunk,

He sees this hole where a branch used to be.

That was perhaps rotten and cut down.

That maybe helped to keep this tree going for so long.

And he peers into that hole.

And he tries to squint and see what he can see in there.

And he can see a little bit of light in that hole.

And it looks like there are some steps.

And he's a little confused by this.

And so he decides that he wants to explore inside this tree.

And he whistles to his dog who stands up and walks around the tree to be in front of him.

He then calls for the dog to jump up and join him and the dog runs at the tree,

Jumps and scrabbles a bit and manages to get its two front paws just high enough for the boy to be able to get his arms just under the front legs of the dog and help to pull it up into his arms.

Then the boy and the dog lower themselves down through that hole.

And as they lower down,

So a green glow begins to illuminate the inside of this tree.

And they notice that strangely the inside of the tree seems larger than it appears from the outside.

There's enough room for what appears to be a spiral staircase.

And so they begin to follow those steps.

And they follow down 10 steps from 10,

9,

8,

7,

6,

As they go deeper and deeper into the tree.

5,

4,

3,

2,

1,

As they step off the bottom of those steps.

The dog's paws make the most gentle sound on the ground.

And the boy takes a couple of steps and that green glow continues down here.

And as the boy looks around,

He notices what looks almost like lots of green string spread out in multiple directions,

Down many different tunnels.

And that green string has some thicker parts of string,

Some thinner and some incredibly fine.

And they seem to be pulsing ever so slightly.

With pulses of light,

Pulses of green light spreading down all those strings.

And the boy and the dog start walking down the tunnels,

Exploring these tunnels,

Wondering where these tunnels are.

And as they walk,

They find that above them is another tree,

Another spiral staircase.

And that there seems to be tunnels coming off of all the trees that connect from one tree to another,

And that green string seems to connect from one tree to another and seems to fill the soil around the edge of the tunnels.

And its glow illuminates the tunnels.

And it seems that every step the boy takes and the dog takes,

Impart a little bit of energy to where they step,

Making a slightly brighter glow.

And as they follow these tunnels,

They end up noticing daylight in the distance.

And they walk towards that daylight and they see that there's a small hole that from the outside probably just looks like a rabbit hole.

And they crawl out through that small hole and they find that they're on the edge of the river.

And they sit for a moment listening to the river,

Wondering where they've been and why they've never noticed that before.

And as they look back,

It does look very much like a rabbit hole.

They can't notice the glowing green inside there from outside here.

And the boy wonders whether at night time,

When it's pitch black,

Whether that green could be seen then and whether perhaps no one's ever noticed because most people aren't out in this location at night time.

And while they sit on the edge of that river,

Listening to the water flow by so calmly,

Feeling the warmth of the sun overhead,

Wondering what all the green string is.

They see what looks like sparkling coming from the waterfall.

And then out of that sparkling,

They start hearing the faint tinkling sound of tiny bells.

And then what looks like a fairy flying out from the waterfall.

It flies over towards the boy and the dog and it seems to investigate them.

And while it's investigating the dog,

So that dog seems to twitch its nose,

Be a bit irritated by this fairy floating straight in front of its nose.

Then the fairy lands on a rose and calls the boy over.

And that fairy begins to explain that there's more life out here than he probably realizes that all of nature is connected.

And by him going down into the roots of the trees and exploring those underground tunnels,

He's become aware of something in nature that others overlook.

The way that all the plants,

The trees will communicate through a web under the ground of fungus and that that connects and allows communication from the roots of all of the plants,

Of the flowers,

Of the grass.

What the grass communicates,

When it's being walked on,

And what direction it's being walked on,

And what actions whatever's walking on it is doing to be able to warn others of what might happen.

And that that fungus glows in a green glow as energy passes along it,

As that communication passes along it.

With some networks of the fungus passing large amounts of information and being thicker strands of fungus that then spreads out almost like motorways breaking down into smaller roads and smaller roads as you get closer and closer to any one house.

And the boy,

Just being a child,

Didn't even bat an eyelid to hearing all this.

It just seemed like a perfectly acceptable normal thing.

As the fairy continued to explain.

And then that fairy took off again and flew back towards the waterfall.

And the child and the dog decided to walk back to that churchyard.

And as they arrived back at the churchyard,

They walked up to the church.

And the boy wanted to collect his paper aeroplane so he could place it on a shelf at home,

The paper aeroplane that reached the top of the church.

So the boy and the dog went to the church door carefully and attempted to quietly open that door as it made a large heavy wooden door sound and creaked open.

And he couldn't hear any voices in here now.

And he walked into the church and could see the way the sun was shining through the stained glass windows on one side of the church,

Illuminating those stained glass windows with the most beautiful vivid colours.

And the way that light was cast across the floor and the walls of the church.

And he walked through the coloured light looking around to spot his paper aeroplane.

And then he saw the aeroplane just sitting on a table near the tower.

He went over and picked up the paper aeroplane and walked to the tower and looked up at the bell overhead and the rope hanging down.

And the rope was currently attached,

Wound up at the wall.

But he just looked up and wondered whether someone had been stood there with that rope when that paper aeroplane had fallen down the tower.

And being a child,

Something about this made him smile.

The thought of an adult wondering where this random paper aeroplane had come from falling out of the sky.

And he left the church,

Left the churchyard and began to find his way back,

All the way back home.

He went back through the park.

He walked back to his street,

Turned down his street.

Walked at home,

Went up to his room.

He let his parents know as he was walking up to his room that he was back home now.

He placed that paper aeroplane right in the centre of his mantelpiece.

Was it taking pride of place?

He then went back downstairs.

He sat down on a sofa in the living room as his mum started talking to him from the kitchen,

Asking if he's had a nice afternoon,

Saying that he probably needs to wash himself and sort himself out for dinner.

And so he takes his dog and the two of them,

Clean themselves up,

Ready for dinner time.

And in the time it takes them to do that,

The sun comfortably sets.

He can smell the waft of dinner.

He sits and enjoys dinner with his parents,

With his dog sat at his feet,

Occasionally secretly passing little bits of food down to his dog while keeping his eyes fixed on his parents,

Unaware that the parents know exactly what he's doing.

And he looks down and is sure that his dog is smiling back up at him as it rests back down again in such a loving,

Kind way at his feet.

And after dinner,

His mum says that he can stay up a little later tonight so that he can enjoy the eclipse.

And his dad had been setting up a few cameras out in the garden to try and get the best photos he can of the eclipse.

And they'd set up some deck chairs.

The mum made some warm popcorn and some hot chocolate to drink.

And they wrapped up warm,

Sat in the deck chairs,

Tilted back,

Gazing up at the sky.

The dad kept getting up and taking photos and then resting back in the deck chairs and then getting up,

Taking photos and then resting back in the deck chair as the eclipse went on.

And kept on explaining what's going on and what could be seen in the sky and the occasional cloud would pass across the moon.

And they all just rest back in the deck chairs as the moon began to look like it was being eaten.

It went from a full moon to gradually getting darker and darker as the earth's shadow moved across the moon until it was the most beautiful pinky red colour in the sky.

And the boy was just eating his popcorn,

Drinking the hot chocolate,

Enjoying the experience.

The mum was asking him if he's enjoying the experience and was enjoying the experience herself.

The dad was frantically taking photos,

Trying to get the best pictures that he could.

Moving through one camera,

Then another,

Moving the cameras.

Then after a while,

A bright white line appeared on one side of the moon as the shadow began to move across the moon,

Moving off of the moon.

And the boy was getting more and more tired.

He found that he was beginning to yawn so much.

And the mum said,

That's not surprising that you seem to be tired.

It's really late and past your bedtime,

And as the eclipse was coming to an end,

The dad explained that although it looks like it's ended,

The shadow isn't completely off the moon.

That there's a dark shadow that passes across the moon.

And then there's a lighter shadow that passes across the moon.

And that there's still many hours until that lighter,

Almost imperceptible shadow finishes passing across the moon.

And the mum says,

You can stay out here taking photos if you want,

But I think we'll go to bed now.

And the son agreed.

And he was pretty much out of popcorn and hot chocolate now.

So he was more than happy to go to bed.

He'd seen the best part of the eclipse.

He'd had the most interesting day.

He went upstairs,

Got himself ready for bed and got into bed.

His mum kissed him on the forehead and said goodnight.

His dad came in,

Kissed him on the forehead and said goodnight.

And said that he'll show him the photos in the morning.

They then shut his bedroom door.

And with his dog,

Lying in a dog bed in the corner of the room,

Curled up,

Already about to fall asleep,

He settled down thinking about the day that he'd had.

And he could just hear the gentle bubbling of the fish tank that was over at the side of his room,

The very slight glow from that fish tank.

And he always found that gentle bubbling in the fish tank helped focus his mind as he drifted and floated so comfortably asleep.

Feeling so well all night long,

Knowing that he'll awaken in the morning,

Feeling refreshed,

Revitalised and ready to enjoy the next day.