Moonlit Apiary

It's midsummer at the apiary, and the bees are growing drowsy in the warm late afternoon sun. They buzz about sipping the last nectar of the day before carrying it home to their hives. As the sun sets, the windows of the beekeeper's cottage glow sweetly over nearby Blackberry Pond, and the surrounding landscape transforms. You'll find this magical place tucked down a quiet country road in Cozy Acres between the lavender fields and the twilight forest. To prepare for our visit, let's pause for a little wind-down. 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 during the night. We're going to be counting our breaths, and then just gently noting thoughts and feelings as they arise. 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 and 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 conditions for gentle, restful sleep. So to begin, just take a moment or two to get comfortable. Make sure you're nice and cool. Just starting with some big, deep breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. And with the next out breath, allow the breath to return to its natural rhythm, in and out through the nose, and feeling the weight of the body pressing you down into your bed. And in your own time, starting 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 thought, simply note it thinking and return to the breath, or if a feeling arises, note it as feeling and return to the breath. Noting is very gentle, not harsh at all. Think of it like a feather, just gently touching the surface of a crystal glass. I'm going to give you a few moments just to keep counting the breath and noting any thoughts and feelings that arise. That's great. The apiary is nestled between Hamish's Honey Barn and Blackberry Pond with its rows of lopsided honey hives all painted different colors, forming a miniature village on stilts, like something out of a fairytale. In the cool night air, the bee yard lies still and quiet, save for the soft hum of crickets and the occasional breeze rustling the nearby trees. But in daylight hours, the hives buzz with life as forager bees venture out into the lavender fields and beyond, bringing back nectar and propolis to feed the hive. Inside the colony, bees twitch and buzz between the hexagons of honeycomb. Each hive...