It's bedtime now.
Time to snuggle into bed and let your eyes softly close.
Let's take three deep breaths together.
Ready?
Good.
Notice how warm and safe and comfortable you feel.
Keeping your eyes closed,
Allow your mind to travel with the sound of my voice.
Beneath you,
Your bed has transformed and you feel weightless drifting along on the currents of the sea.
You have just been born and you are finding your way to the sea floor to begin the next stage of your development.
Down you float,
Down and down,
Propelling yourself ever so slightly and gracefully using your celia all the way to the magnificent sea floor.
At this stage you are called Plenulae and you are about to grow into an entire colony.
You have arrived now at the magnificent sea floor where you attach yourself.
Unlike many animals on earth,
Your growth allows you to change your shape multiple times.
Now that you are firmly attached to the sea floor,
Your cells change and form into a hydroid,
Creating a branching and beautiful colony of stolons or stems,
Complete with feeding polyps.
You have gone from resembling a teeny tiny bug to resembling a teeny tiny sea plant,
Though you are still just one amazing creature.
Incredibly your cells are cloning themselves and each polyp and then medusa you are creating is genetically identical.
As each medusa grows,
You have effectively made multiple clones of yourself who will detach from the colony and lead individual lives.
Even though you are now a medusa,
You are still just a little thing smaller than a pebble.
You weigh next to nothing and nothing weighs on you either.
You are free from worry,
Fear or judgment and rely solely on sensation provided to you by your nerve net which allows you to smell,
Detect light and respond to other stimuli to get you through life.
And what a life you have!
In fact,
You are one of the most incredible and least understood animals in the world due to your remarkable lifespan.
As you float along in the sea,
You happen upon some plankton,
Your perfect meal.
Your nematocytes render your prey defenseless and you bring the plankton up to your mouth using your white tentacles where it will then travel to your bright red cruciform or cross-shaped stomach for digesting.
You open and close your cap,
Letting water flow in and out of your bell-shaped body.
The water fills your cap,
Swirling around your hydrostatic skeleton,
Your mesoglia.
You float for a moment,
Then contract and are propelled through the water.
You don't go very far because you bump into another one of you.
You are now floating in a bloom.
Hundreds of you are crowded together,
Looking like a cloud in the sea.
You will continue to float and feed and grow until environmental factors,
Predation or disease come into your life.
But when that happens,
You perform the most amazing feat science has ever seen.
You float back down to the bottom of the magnificent sea and start all over as a hydroid,
Creating new clones of yourself in a process called transdifferentiation.
And in this way,
You are immortal and will live forever.
All the work of becoming familiar with the cloning and transdifferentiation of life as a sea jelly has made you tired.
You start to feel a deep sense of relaxation come over you.
You imagine yourself as a medusa with warm water swirling all around you as you swim towards beams of light cascading through the currents of the sea.
As you imagine yourself floating,
You feel totally relaxed and at peace.
You notice the muscles in your feet,
Your legs,
Your back and stomach,
Your chest,
Your arms and hands,
Your neck,
And your face and head releasing.
Your breathing becomes soft and deep and effortless.
You are completely comfortable resting in your warm,
Soft bed.
The sound of your breathing gently lulling you off to sleep.
Good night,
Little Tertopsis Dorni.
