Harvest Inn

Far beyond the gentle curves of this quiet country lane, past the babbling brooks and the row of orchard trees, sits the Harvest Inn, a stately bed and breakfast cherished by locals, and our destination for the evening. Sprawling elms at the inn's entrance create a perfect archway over the road, which bends down through a canopy of ancient willow trees with branches so long, they nearly brush the ground. The white wooden columns along the front porch feel as sturdy as the day they were built, rooted down into the earth below as if they had grown from the natural landscape. The entryway of the home opens into a spacious sitting room where a large crackling fire has been patiently awaiting your arrival. An armchair across from the cobblestone fireplace invites you to sit and admire the various amenities that surround you, for every room of the harvest in has its own story to tell. As you settle yourself in for the evening, let's begin with a short wind-down exercise. Tonight's wind-down is a visualization. So when you're ready, let's begin. So no matter what's been going on today, whether it's been a busy day or a calm one, this is an opportunity to put everything down, to let go of any inner chatter and find a place of rest in both the body and the mind. So first, get yourself comfortable in bed, just taking a moment to pause and be still. And when you're ready, taking a big deep breath, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. And as you breathe out, allowing the body to sink down into your bed, feeling the weight of the body, allowing thoughts to come and go. Now imagining a steady flow of warm sunlight flowing down through the body, dissolving any tension, any discomfort, as it begins to fill the body, starting with the toes, moving up through the feet and the legs, being filled with sunlight. The qualities of warmth, space, and ease as it continues to travel up through the body, up past the waist, through the back and the stomach. It's as though it washes away any discomfort. It continues up through the chest and the upper back into the shoulders and down the arms, all the way back down to the hands and fingers. A sense of relief in the body and stillness in the mind as it continues to travel up through the neck and the throat, into the head and face, all the way to the very top of the body, until there's nothing other than that sense of stillness remaining. And now just gently bringing the attention back to the body. Just through the doorway to your right past the formal dining room, you can see the dining nook. It's a wonderful place to enjoy some solitude where many guests like to sit and have nice leisurely meals or read the newspaper cover to cover. The window seat over there...