Twilight Square

It's dusk. And the sun has just set on our little town square. It's not a grand place, but to the local people, it is a source of civic pride. There's something perfect about it. Perhaps its dignified proportions reflect the town's character. Or its location slightly to the north of the town's true center, which makes it convenient to get to and from any other point. Or some other auspicious quality that humans do not register consciously are what gives it its unique welcoming atmosphere. Or maybe it's just that it's our town square. The weather is cool this evening. The breeze carries with it the faint smell of popcorn and the murmur of quiet voices. If you listen carefully, you can make out the gentle tinkling of the fountain carved from an unusual pink granite with flecks of crystal in it that glisten when its surface is wet. It fills a shallow pool with a bench around its edge. The bottom of the pool is almost totally covered with copper coins. The sheer number of copper coins might cause you to wonder if this pool is more than usually lucky. How many wishes have come true so far? I know this town so 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. 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 or having nothing left to do. We're going to focus the attention of the mind on the different parts of the body. Watching as the muscles of the body switch off for the night, leaving the body feeling rested and leaving the mind more at ease. So starting down at the toes and feeling a sense of the muscles switching off. The feet, the arches, all those muscles switching off. Same in the lower half of the legs. Notice any tension being let go of as the muscles switch off, shut down. In the upper half of the legs, any tension 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 are now switching off. Middle of the back, around the diaphragm, the upper back and the chest. So any muscle not needed shutting down, switching off for the night. The shoulders switching off. The upper half of the arms and the lower half of the arms 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 melting away as the muscles shut down, switch off, at...