Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - The Cornucopia of Plenty (Re-Release)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Before tonight's episode, I want to let you know about our supporters' feed Get Sleepy Premium, the best way to experience the show and get a good night's sleep. With Get Sleepy Premium, everything is ad-free. You'll receive a bonus episode every week, and have full access to our entire back catalogue. Your support really helps, and means so much to us. Simply tap the link in the show notes to learn more. Now, a quick word from our sponsors who make it possible for us to bring you two three episodes each week. Have you ever wished that we'd include soothing nature sounds as a background

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Starting point is 00:02:20 The podcast where we listen, we relax, and we get sleepy. As usual, I'm your host, Thomas. As a bonus episode in celebration of Thanksgiving in the US, we're re-releasing the cornucopia of plenty. Every day is a good opportunity to be grateful. So we thought we'd take this chance to show all of you our beloved listeners a little gratitude ourselves and hopefully give you an extra opportunity for some good sleep. As we enter the festive season, I'd just like to mention that our supporters' feed

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Starting point is 00:04:01 Seeing as Thanksgiving represents the notion of gratitude and appreciation. Let's take a moment to settle in and think about what we can be most grateful for. Make yourself nice and comfortable in bed, feeling the softness of your duvet covering your body and the gentle support of the pillow beneath your head and neck. How lucky you are to have this comfortable place to settle into and rest each night. Take a moment to appreciate that comfort right now. Then, briefly trace your memory back over the events of the day just gone. Whatever happened today, there will have been moments, perhaps you might call them micromoments in which you felt a sense of joy, contentment or gratitude. So think about the day you just gone and try to pick out a moment that you feel grateful for. may be it was your morning coffee or a delicious meal, maybe it was a passing smile with a stranger or a friendly message received from a loved one, maybe you're grateful for the weather that came today. Perhaps for the work you were

Starting point is 00:06:11 able to do and how it made you feel a sense of accomplishment. Or perhaps simply for the fact that you have a roof over your head. The moment you pick will no doubt be uniquely your own. And I'm happy that you've had a chance to remind yourself of that positive moment. Now finally, just consider a person you care deeply about. Someone you feel lucky to have in your life. It can be anyone at all. Take a moment to say thank you to that person just quietly in your mind. And so I'm sure you see, there are always reasons to be grateful. Let that feeling of gratitude fill your heart and mind as TK begins our story tonight. Imagine a crisp autumn day. A cool breeze sends the last few leaves, falling from nearby barren trees. The change in colors recently passed its peak. The once bright and burnt colors of autumn are beginning to fade to brown and gray.

Starting point is 00:08:29 Imagine long tables in the center of an old village. They are covered in pumpkins, corn and squash, surrounded by friends and neighbors, mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, grandparents and grandchildren. In the middle of these tables, sits a large cornucopia made of woven reeds. The narrow end of the basket stands nearly two feet off the table. As it curves down gently, it widens and opens. At its broadest point, it's nearly as big as the table itself. the table itself. Altogether, it covers half the table's length. During the annual harvest festival, this cornucopia is filled to the brim with the fruits of the season's harvest. Peas, potatoes, squash, horn, and beans overflow from the front. And in front of that bounty, sit the

Starting point is 00:09:50 pies. So many pies, apple pies, pumpkin pies, become pies, and pies you have probably never heard of before. All rich and full of flavor. But despite all this, there's one clear star of the harvest table, sweet potatoes. Every year, it's piled high with every kind of food you could possibly make from sweet potatoes. Sweet potato bread, sweet potato puddings and pies, candy sweet potatoes, and mashed ones too. That's because this town is known for its famous sweet potato crop. At harvest time, the brown and orange banners go up. The sweet potato decorations cover every corner of town. A townspeople send invitations to

Starting point is 00:10:57 neighboring villages decorated with tiny drawings of sweet potatoes. And those neighbors come from far and wide to see what kinds of strange and delicious sweet potato creations can be found in the cornucopia. Along with the usual goodies, last year's feast features sweet potato ice cream, sweet potato cake with carrot and ginger icing. Rose did sweet potatoes with sage, sweet potato soup with cinnamon cream and personal sweet potato candies, dusted with powdered sugar. But this here, something is different. It's the evening before the harvest festival, and the cornucopia sits empty. There are no vegetables, no fruits, no luscious desserts. There's nothing on the table with the large woven cornucopia, and that is what bothered Amelia.

Starting point is 00:12:16 Every year, Amelia looked forward to the harvest festival. It was her favorite holiday in her favorite month, in her favorite season. She looked forward to the feasting, of course. But what she enjoyed most about the festival was her whole community coming together in celebration of a year's hard work. It was a happy time for her village. Everyone laughed and smiled. This year seemed that happiness was a long way off for one simple reason. There were no sweet potatoes. Sweet Potatoes. Amelia knew the sweet potato harvest wasn't as great as it had been before. They hadn't grown as big as last year. They weren't as plentiful as two years ago.

Starting point is 00:13:18 The ones that did grow were small and withered. There weren't even enough to make a single pie. Nobody seemed to know why, either. For weeks now, Amelia noticed people walking around town with a dragon their step. They weren't as cheerful as they usually were in the days leading up to the festival. They seemed to move a little slower and weren't as quick with a smile either. So far, this wasn't shaping up to be a good harvest festival. In fact, it didn't seem that there would be much of a holiday at all if things kept on this way. Without the sweet potatoes, it seemed people had lost the will to celebrate. Amelia turned 12 earlier this year.

Starting point is 00:14:26 Her birthday was fun as always, but this time, her mother said something to her that she wouldn't soon forget. Now that she was 12, her mother said, she was growing up, and that meant she'd have to see things a little bit differently. She needed to start learning how the world worked. Her lessons were beginning quickly, it seemed. In the past, she'd seen the harvest festival as just a holiday. It was a dependable celebration. It happened

Starting point is 00:15:08 every year at the same time, but now, with her mother's words in mind, she realized the harvest festival was quite different than the other special days on the calendar. It depended entirely on the harvest, and most importantly, it depended on the sweet potato harvest. It had been a poor harvest, so it made sense the festival wouldn't be the same. But that didn't mean the harvest festival should be canceled altogether. This here was tough, sure. But sweet potatoes weren't the only crop they grew.

Starting point is 00:15:59 They still had plenty to eat, so they should still have plenty to celebrate. At least, that's what a meal you thought. After all, if the sweet potato season had been difficult, didn't the community need a celebration now more than ever? Something to raise their spirits. They needed to remember why they had a harvest festival in the first place. It was up to Amelia to make things right. She took one last look at the empty cornucopia and made a promise to herself. By this time tomorrow, it would be full. She would save the harvest festival. She went back home and packed up a small backpack with some snacks

Starting point is 00:16:58 and water. She pulled her bicycle out of the shed and headed out. She peddled down the road toward the next village. She felt the fresh autumn wind blowing through her hair as she glided along the gravel road. Small rocks crunched beneath the tires, as she rolled along. When Amelia reached the next town, she knocked on the first door she came to. A woman answered and invited her inside. She told the woman where she was from. The woman had, of course, heard of the harvest festival.

Starting point is 00:17:48 In fact, she had been wondering why she hadn't received an invitation this year. Amelia explained how the season hadn't gone so well, and there were no sweet potatoes for the festival this year. The woman thought for a moment, walked back to her pantry. She still had a few of those sweet potato candies from last year. They were delicious, and she wanted to save them for a special occasion. This seemed as good a time as an a-to bring them out. She handed the small sack to Amelia and suggested she try next door. If she remembered correctly, her neighbors still had a couple of jars of preserved sweet potatoes from last year too. a million thank the woman, and, taking her advice, knocked on the neighbor's door.

Starting point is 00:18:49 E2 wondered why he hadn't received an invitation to the festival this year, and he did have some jars of sweet potato preserves left over. He handed them to Amelia who put them in her backpack. Perhaps she should try the neighbor on the other side, the man suggested. She might have some pies in the icebox. Amelia continued down the road, knocking on door after door. Everyone seemed eager to help. They all wanted to take part in the Harvest Festival, like always. She collected donations of sweet potato treats until her backpack was full. She put it on her back, got on her bicycle, and peddled back home. The harvest table was still empty when she arrived.

Starting point is 00:19:53 She went to the Cognacopia, and one by one pulled the candies, the jars, and the frozen pies from her bag. She arranged them neatly in the middle of the basket, but when she stood back to look at her work, she realized it wasn't nearly enough. Though she'd brought a good amount of items back, they didn't even begin to fill the massive Cornucopia. Amelia sighed. Her plan would never work. It was a silly idea, thinking she could make a harvest festival without a fresh sweet potato crop.

Starting point is 00:20:40 She put the last pie on the table and walked home, her head hung low. There just wasn't enough time. There would be no festival this year. Or so she thought. What Amelia didn't realize was that her town had friends. For years, people had come from other villages to visit the Harvest Festival. They too mock their calendars and look forward to the annual event. It turns out that if you feed people year after year, they tend to remember and be grateful for it.

Starting point is 00:21:30 The neighboring villagers didn't know about the bad harvest until Amelia showed up at their doorsteps to ask for help. And so, they gave it. As Amelia slept comfortably in bed that night, the people she'd spoken with in the next village made a plan. They went to other villages nearby and knocked on doors late into the night. The next morning, as the sun began to rise above the horizon, the people in a milliest town started to wake up. The first was an old woman who lived in a quaint brick house right off the main square. She opened her curtains and gas. There, on the harvest table, was a vast assortment of sweet potato treats. Plates, bowls, and platters lined the table,

Starting point is 00:22:37 filled with all kinds of mashes, cakes, soups and wreaths. She couldn't believe her eyes. She walked outside to make sure it was real. On the middle of the table was a note. Thank you, for always sharing with us, Edred. Now, it's time for us to share with you, with gratitude, your neighbors. It was signed with the names of all the nearby villages. How wonderful the woman thought, but everything on it was made of sweet potatoes. Perhaps it would be better with some green beans, she wondered. She went home and found 15 cans she could spare for the cornucopia. Her neighbor was the florist.

Starting point is 00:23:37 Flowers weren't the most practical crop, but they made people smile. Every year, he traveled to other villages far away and brought back seeds to cultivate in his fields and greenhouse. For weddings and birthdays and other celebrations, he always repaired flower arrangements and brilliant colors just for the occasion. He saw his neighbor carrying can after can of green beans out to the harvest table. It was a wonderful table already, he thought, but it would look stunning with some flowers. He picked several handfuls of orange, red and yellow blooms and nestled them around the base of the Cornucopia in intricate designs.

Starting point is 00:24:34 When he was done, he stepped back and smiled. The Cornucopia had been brought to life. It was a little later in the morning now, a few villagers walked past as he was working. How beautiful they remarked. What lovely decorations they said, pointing to the intricate designs. But a harvest table should have onions too, thought the woman who had several growing behind her house. She hurried back to pick the best ones. Another woman across town had blueberry bushes on her property, which produced magnificently last summer. She still had two dozen jars of jam left

Starting point is 00:25:27 and would never eat them all by herself, so she added them to the quickly filling table. The village baker spotted the jam on the table. To him, jam, without bread, was true nonsense. He had some flower at home he needed to use. So he hurried home and made warm, flaky biscuits. The baker's neighbors saw him carrying tray after tray of biscuits and asked where he was going. He said people were filling

Starting point is 00:26:07 the cornucopia with an odd assortment of foods. So naturally he'd made biscuits. She nodded. I have just the thing, she said. From her pantry, she gathered up jars of sweet, sun-dried tomatoes and oil. There were so many tomatoes two years before. She would never eat all the cans she had prepared. On her way to the Cornucopia, she stopped to visit her friend on the next street over. She knew that he had loads of corn and beans and persuaded him to come along.

Starting point is 00:26:54 Together, they went to his mother's house. She sent them away with some preserved peaches and sugar-coated apricots. By the time they reached the town square, it was bustling with people. From their pantries, cabinets, yards, and gardens, they managed to gather quite a feast. They all stood in line around the table, waiting to stack their goods on the pile bursting forth from the cornucopia. Weaving between the people in line were the best cooks in the village. selection gathered a few items and hurried home to prepare warm, tasty dishes are all to enjoy. Amelia slept late that morning, even after she woke up she just laid in bed. After all, there wasn't much of a reason to get up if there wouldn't be a harvest festival. But then, her mother knocked on the door.

Starting point is 00:28:14 Amelia sat up in bed. Her mother grinned and told her to get dressed and hurry to the town square. Amelia didn't like hurrying, but she did what her mother said. She walked down the cobblestone road toward the square. As she got closer, she realized something smelled good. She sniffed the air. It smelled like a feast.

Starting point is 00:28:49 When she got to the edge of the square, she was met by her glorious sight. The harvest table, which had been nearly empty the night before, was now overflowing with every kind of food imaginable. There were pickled eggs and curried carrots, green bean castorals and cremes corn, sun-dried tomato and olive loafs, assorted jams and flaky biscuits, there were cakes, pies, and custards too. And above all, there were dozens and dozens of sweet potato dishes from the villages nearby. The earthy, rich smell of the sweet potatoes touched her nose and sent a tingle down her spine. It smelled like home.

Starting point is 00:29:52 Before her, lay a bountiful harvest festival feast. It was even better than other years because of the wider variety of foods, and at the surrounding tables at the villagers and all of the people who come from far and wide to share. As Amelia stood there, staring at this marvelous sight, her friends and neighbors began to clap. They stood and toasted Amelia, the girl who saved the harvest festival. It all started with a backpack, a bicycle, and a few candies. From that grew a cornucopia fuller than anyone could remember. This year was a bad sweet potato harvest. That was true, but kindness and generosity last far longer than a single harvest.

Starting point is 00:31:01 In prior years, they'd shared without question. Now, they knew what it felt like to be the recipient, and for that, they were thankful. For the rest of the day, everyone sat together around the tables in the town square, eating and drinking, laughing and telling stories. For hours Amelia sat with them, enjoying her favorite holiday and understanding, finally, what it was all about. Evening drew to an end. A murky liand.

Starting point is 00:31:50 She'd eaten her fill and finished it off with at least three different types of desserts. She walked home with her parents. She curled up in her bed that night with a full belly and even fuller heart. Everyone has what they need she realized as long as they have each other. And with that thought she fell into her deep and peaceful sleep. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... you

Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - The Cornucopia of Plenty (Re-Release)

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