Hummingbird Bungalow

Welcome to the garden of the Hummingbird Bungalow. Some people might consider it an ordinary garden, but to me it's nothing of the kind. It's a place of extraordinary tranquility and rest, and on a warm evening, as the sun goes down, its very existence is a little reminder that just like cities need gardens, even busy people need a little space to unwind. Before we start exploring the garden, I think it's always helpful to do a little wind-down exercise. Tonight's wind-down is a visualization. So when you're ready, let's begin. So just take a moment to get comfortable, letting go of the day, enjoying that feeling of having stopped, of having nothing left to do. We're just going to focus the attention of the mind on different parts of the body. Watching as the muscles in the body switch off for the night, leaving the body feeling rested and leaving the mind more at ease. So just starting down at the toes, and just a sense of the muscles switching off, the feet, the arches, all those muscles switching off. Same in the lower half of the legs. So any tension being let go of, as the muscles switch off, shut down. In the upper half the legs, any tension just melting away, being let go of. Into the area of the hips, the pelvis, again, any muscles shutting down for the night. Completely at rest. Everything from the waist downward is heavy, at ease. The muscles in the lower back and the stomach, now switching off. Middle of the back, around the diaphragm, the upper back and the chest. Any the muscles not needed, shutting down, switching off for the night. The shoulders, just switching off. The upper half of the arms and the lower half of the arms, just switching off. The hands, fingers. just switching off. Any muscles around the throat and the neck, switching off. The head, the face, the jaw, the eyes, any last areas of tension, just melting away as the muscles shut down, switch off, at rest for the night. Allowing thoughts to come and go. Just allowing the mind and body the space they need to rest. In the late afternoon, the garden belongs to cats. They can quite sleepy and come from all around to nap among the plants here. These cats grew up in their own gardens and now they wander the neighborhood safely. No one knows a garden as well as a cat. Do you see one now wiggling under the fence? Yes, a Tabby cat, bright green eyes, patiently steps around the flower patch to her favorite bed of daffodils. She is careful to nose through the green stems and find a little space before curling up underneath the yellow petals. This cat covered in stripes of gray and brown almost camouflaged by the shadows of daffodils. She blinks her green eyes and settles in for a snooze. There's another cat prancing down the path. You...