Twilight Square

It's dusk and night is falling on a little town square. It might not look like much, but the town's people are rather proud of this place, with its fountain and it's a white colonnades, constructed through civic contributions some hundred years ago and still used as it was intended for meeting, sitting, talking and walking. Priorities of another time, it almost seems. It's a brisk night and the breeze carries with it the smell of popcorn and the cheerful sound of voices. In the middle of the square is the town's fountain, erected by some local dignitary, now long gone. The constant murmur of water forms a distinct part of the atmosphere of this place as though it was the town's own voice. The fountain fills a shallow round pool with a broad granite lip. It's quite comfortable to sit on, and if you do, perhaps to enjoy the cool breeze and the way the fountain plays on the water surface, you can't help but notice the constellation of copper coins that shimmer at the bottom, each one representing someone's wish. Perhaps this fountain is especially auspicious to attract quite so many individual offerings. It's heartening to see that the human capacity for hope is undiminished. I know this place well, its features and its characters. And it's my great pleasure to describe them to you this evening. However, before I do, I think it's nice to begin with a little 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 the 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 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...