Summer Farmer’s Market

(cloth rustling) Welcome to the Farmer's Market on Avenue ZZZ. Time here seems to slow to a crawl as vendors set up for the evening, unfolding the legs of tables and shaking out tartan tablecloths. The sun is just now starting to dip below the horizon, setting the night market aglow in a warm summer light. Before we enter, let's begin with a wind down exercise. For tonight's wind down, you are going to use your imagination. So get your imagination ready and let's begin. So no matter what's been going on today, whether it's 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 are ready, taking a big deep breath, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. (crickets chirping) 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, (crickets chirping) 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 to the back and the stomach. It is as though it washes away any discomfort. 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. (crickets chirping) 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. (crickets chirping) On tables representing different area farms An assortment of fresh produce is proudly on display. Everything from lush, ripe eggplants to little bundles of spring onions to mountains of freshly picked Bartlett pears. There is a wicker basket filled to bursting with large fuzzy Georgia peaches. Baskets of nectarines with their tout, rough skins, dark plums, ears of sweet corn, still sheathed in green. Heads of broccoli, cauliflower, green cabbage. There are plastic punnets filled with raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries, some still holding onto their stems. Fistfuls of leaks and lemon grass, heirloom tomatoes laid out in rosy rows face down, little shrouded bulbs of garlic. The island grove has a table set up for its more exotic offerings. Baskets of ripe papaya and mango. Wooden crates stamped The Grove in black ink hold fibrous coconuts, pineapples, and pink...