Postcards From France

(machinery quietly humming) As the Moonrise Bakery grows quiet for the evening, Pat notices a single French postcard resting beside the snow globes. One of today's customers must have left it behind. He pauses for a moment to admire the photograph and wonder about the place it came from. On the back, All Patsies is the name of a place waiting to be explored. Before we turn it over and explore a new corner of France, let's begin with a short wind-down exercise. (machinery continues quietly humming) For tonight's wind down, you're going to use your imagination. So get your imagination ready and let's begin. (machinery continues quietly humming) So no matter what's been going on today, whether it's been a busy day or calm one, this is an opportunity to put everything down, (machinery continues quietly humming) 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, take in 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. (machinery continues quietly humming) 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. (machinery continues quietly humming) The qualities of warmth, space, and ease as it continues to travel up, through the body, up past the waist, to the back, and the stomach. It's as though it washes away any discomfort. (machinery continues quietly humming) It continues up through the chest and the back, into the shoulders and down the arms, all the way down to the hands and fingers. A sense of relief in the body (machinery continues quietly humming) 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. (machinery continues quietly humming) High in the mountains of Jura, green middles stretch across the hillsides beneath a wide summer sky. (water gently flowing) White flowers sway gently in the breeze, their colors scattered across the grass in shades of yellow, white, violet, and blue. In the distance, limestone peaks rise above the alleys, their slopes softened by forest of spruce and fir. Batches of mist linger in the lower middles, slowly lifting as the day unfolds. Cowbells drift across the hills from unseen pastures. The sound travels slowly through the mountain air, rising and falling with the wind. (water continues gently flowing) Nearby,...