Summer Farmer’s Market

(birds and crickets chirping) It's good to see you here at the farmers market. The vendors are just now setting up their wares. There is a bit of everything here: fresh cut flowers, mounds of summer peaches, loaves of warm bread. (crickets continue chirping) The day is slowing down. It's time for a stroll through the market. (crickets continue chirping) Before we explore, let's prepare with a wind-down exercise. Tonight's wind down is an exercise we call noting. It helps to soothe the mind, and once you've learned it, you can even use it if you wake up in the night. (crickets continue chirping) We are going to be counting our breaths and then just gently noting thoughts and feelings as they arise. (crickets continue chirping) We're not trying to change them. We're simply labeling thinking as thinking, feeling as feeling. It may sound incredibly simple, but it can help to create distance between ourselves and the thought, ourselves and the feeling so we don't get so involved in it. That, in turn, creates a more restful state of mind, in other words, the perfect state of mind for gentle, restful sleep. So to begin with, just take a moment or two to get comfortable. Make sure you're nice and cool. (crickets continue chirping) Just starting with some nice big, deep breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. (crickets continue chirping) And with the next breath out, allow the breath to return to its natural rhythm, in and out through the nose and just feeling the weight of the body pressing down into your bed. (crickets continue chirping) And in your own time, start to count the breaths as they pass. One with the rise, two with the fall, just up to a count of 10. When you get to 10, you can stop and start again at one. And remember, anytime you get distracted, the moment you realize you're distracted by a thought, simply note it, thinking, and return to the breath. Or if a feeling arises, feeling and return to the breath. That noting is very gentle, not harsh at all. Think of it like a feather, just gently touching the surface of a crystal glass. (crickets continue chirping) I'm going to give you a few moments just to keep counting the breath and noting any thoughts and feelings that arise. (crickets continue chirping) (crickets continue chirping) (waves crashing) That's great. (crickets continue chirping) The local bakery is setting up. The baker, Samuel, wears a flour-dusted apron, which he periodically uses to wipe his hands and face. There is a weariness to his lined face, but also an incomparable confidence. His strong hands move with a life of their own, used to years of kneading dough in the early before dawn. His son Jamie is also here tonight to help him. He wears a paper boys' hat over his unruly urban mop of hair and has a youthful authority about him. He pulls a blue-striped...