Rainday Antiques 2

When night is falling and the rain is coming down hard everybody knows there's no better place to shelter from the storm than our favorite 24-hour antique shop. And tonight it's as inviting as ever. Its windows are blurred squares of warm light, and the door opens to your touch on the brass push plate. Welcome back to Rain Day Antiques. It's good to see you again. In the back of the shop in a corner, a woman sits at a large oak desk holding a set of silver candlesticks. With a fine cloth, she gently polishes the silver. Its surface gleaming just a little brighter with each circular motion of her hand. The warm lighting within the shop reflects from the candlesticks so that streaks of golden light shimmer across the ceiling. Tonight, the shop feels both familiar and new. The happy result of running a store where the stock is always changing. As you know, you can get lost in this shop's treasures, but before you do, let's take a moment for a short exercise. Tonight's exercise is a really simple breathing exercise. So, when you're ready, let's begin. So, first, get yourself comfortable. Now, just bringing the attention to the breath, just noticing where you feel it. In the nose, the throat, the chest, the diaphragm. You're nice and relaxed. We're going to be taking a deep breath in for four, holding it for four, and then breathing out for six. So, are you ready? Let's begin. In for four, two, three, four. Hold it for four, two, three, four. Breathing out for six, two, three, four, five, six. In for four, two, three, four. Holding for four, two, three, four. Out for six, two, three, four, five, six. In for four, two, three, four. Holding for four, two, three, four. Out for six, two, three, four, five, six. In for four, two, three, four. Holding for four, two, three, four. Out for six, two, three, four, five, six. Great. Now returning the breath to normal. Wandering over to a corner, you find an old wooden printer's drawer pinned to the wall, housing collection of miniatures. The printer's drawer is the kind they used for letterpress printing back in the day, with a brass handle on top and a series of different sized compartments, perfect for displaying small things. There's a selection of tiny porcelain pigs with painted noses and slots in their back, piggy banks for dolls. If you picked one up, you'd find the teeniest sticker on its belly, marking how many cents or dollars you'd have to part with to take this special item home. There's a fingertip-sized sombrero, a reel of bright red yarn, and a small stoppered glass bottle filled with beads. There's a fringed lamp for a doll house, three cowrie shells, and a decorative pewter thimble with a unicorn perched on top. There's a chipped cat's eye marble that must have won its fair share of games, a tarnished silver...