Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - The Parrot’s Dreamy Tale

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Starting point is 00:02:10 Explore the new Peloton Cross-Training Treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. Welcome to Get Sleepy, where we listen, we relax. and we get sleepy. My name's Thomas, and it's my honour to be your host. There's an animal theme running through three of our four stories coming up this week, and I think you'll adore them all. Those of you who've joined our mailing list will already know what's coming up across the rest of the week, and if you're yet to have added your email address to receive,

Starting point is 00:02:54 our weekly newsletter, you can do so completely free by going to get sleepy.com and entering it into the box that you'll see labelled as join our newsletter on the website's homepage. As for tonight's story, we have a folktale from the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. With the Alps to the north like a crown, the region is known for its stunning lakes and impressive scenic views. Thank you to Frankie for writing it, and to Simon will be reading it for us. Before we venture into the inventive and vivid world of Italian folklore, we must make sure we feel ready. Allow your body to relax in your bed. Mentally run down your body from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet.

Starting point is 00:04:12 Make sure that every part of you is supported and comfortable. Adjust here and there as needed. The first step towards an excellent night of sleep is making sure your body has the optimal conditions for rest. Once you've connected with your body, turn your attention to your mind. Imagine a desk covered in papers, pens, and the debris of a successful working session. This is a little like your mind. made it through the day with the help of your fabulous mind.

Starting point is 00:05:17 And now you can clean up your workspace. Take the time to imagine putting everything away. The pens and pencils go together in the drawer. The papers can all be filed away for another day. The empty coffee cup can be washed and put away, ready for tomorrow. Once your mental desk is completely clear, allow space for your imagination. in your mind, the image of a large blue lake. It's surrounded by green hills on one side and snow-capped mountains on the other.

Starting point is 00:06:28 On its surface, the landscape is reflected back to you, nestled between the shoulders of two hills on the shore of the lake sits a village. And this is where our story begins. In this peaceful little village, near the outskirts, where the buildings and small fields give way to the wild hills, there is a house. A merchant and his daughter live here happily. The daughter keeps the house for her father while he travels and the house itself looks

Starting point is 00:07:43 like a gingerbread cottage. Father and daughter are completely devoted to one another. In recent weeks the local king has made a diversion through the village every time he goes riding to stride by the house on his impressive warhorse with his entire retinue. The men shouting, the horses neighing, and their armour clanking away nearly every day, quite disturbing the peace of the little cottage and its occupants. The merchant and his daughter are no fools, and they know what this behaviour means.

Starting point is 00:08:33 The king intends to marry the daughter. The merchant has a trip coming up and worries about leaving his daughter all alone. As he prepares for his trip, he warns his daughter not to open the door while he's away. It will only be a few days, so surely she can stay inside and not speak to anyone until he gets back. His daughter wants to obey, but they go through this every time he leaves for work.

Starting point is 00:09:18 She tells her father that it is desperately lonely when he goes away, and she is locked up in the house. The merchant is a good father. and he does not like to see his daughter so sad. The day before he is set to leave for his trip, the two of them go into the village to visit the market. The merchant sets up his stall and does some last-minute trading. He gives his daughter some money and tells her to buy anything she wants at the market,

Starting point is 00:09:59 to make her time at home alone more bearable. The daughter accepts the money and wanders through the stalls. There are many beautiful and diverting items, but she is drawn by a flash of colour and a flurry of sound to a stall at the end of the lane. The store is a mini menagerie. There are sleek black cats with yellow eyes and fluffy little dogs small enough to fit in her bag.

Starting point is 00:10:41 There are soft white rabbits and birds of every colour. The girl is drawn immediately to a large blue and yellow parrot, standing calmly on its own tall perch. Without thinking, the girl greets the parrot. To her surprise, the parrot greets her back. She tentatively asks the bird how its day is, and the parrot responds again. The girl immediately knows that this is the answer to her problem.

Starting point is 00:11:25 problems. She pays the merchant at the stall and hurries back to her father. The next morning, the merchant says goodbye to his daughter, happy in the knowledge that she will be safe and content while he is away. He reminds her before he leaves not to open the door for anyone. She agrees and closes the door after him before sitting down with her embroidery next to her new parrot. She asks the parrot if it knows any stories. The parrot replies that it knows just the story for her and begins to recite this tale.

Starting point is 00:12:21 Once upon a time there was a princess who was an only child. So she would not be lonely, the king, her father, had a lovely doll made for her. It looked just like her, and everywhere the princess went, the doll went too. One day the king and the princess were traveling through the forest in their carriage when bandits attacked. They carried off the princess, leaving the king and the door behind. The princess cried out so loudly that the bandits let her go in the middle of the forest. Though this was the first time the princess was out in the wilderness on her own, she was not afraid. The sun shone through in spots.

Starting point is 00:13:21 on the rich forest floor. The sound of birdsong filled the air. Flowers were in bloom and their sweet scent drifted around her. She decided to pick a direction and start walking, trusting that her feet would lead her where she needed to go. It was not long before the girl found a road that led led to a gleaming white stone city surrounding a beautiful castle. The princess went to the castle and got a job as a servant.

Starting point is 00:14:06 The queen of this castle liked her so much that the princess, now servant, became her confidant. The other servants were jealous and told the princess that the queen had a son who disappeared. When the princess asked the queen about her son, the queen grew mad with grief and threw the girl into the dungeon. That night while the girl sat in her cell, she heard the door to the dungeon open and she peered out through the bars. She saw four sorcerers walking a young man up and down the passageway. She recognized the young man as the prince from a painting she once saw in the queen's bedroom.

Starting point is 00:15:10 At this point, the parrot pauses in its story because a great knocking comes from the front door. Outside, a servant calls to the merchant's daughter and begs her to open the door, for he has a letter for her from the king. The merchant's daughter is so enthralled by the parrot's story that she calls back that she She will accept no letters until her father returns. She tells the parrot to go on with the story. The parrot continues. The princess thought of a plan to reveal the truth about the captured prince.

Starting point is 00:15:59 She ate nothing that her jailers brought her the next day. They told the queen, who called for the girl to be brought to her. The girl told the queen about the sorcerers and her son. She revealed that they take the prince out from hiding every night to exercise him. That night the princess waited with some of the palace guards for the sorcerers to come out with the prince. They surprised the evil sorcerers and freed the prince. The queen was so pleased that she offered the prince's hand in marriage for the girl.

Starting point is 00:16:51 The story is interrupted once again by the knocking of the servant outside. The servant is even more insistent, and the knocking comes even louder than before. The merchant's daughter decides that since the story is over, she could probably open the door and read the message. Just as she voices this thought, the parrot tells her that the story is not over yet. Delighted, the merchant's daughter tells the servant to go away and gives her attention back to the parrot. A lovely parrot barely takes a moment to gather its thoughts before starting the story up again. While the girl was very grateful to the queen, she was not interested

Starting point is 00:17:50 in marrying the prince. Instead, she accepted a small bag of gold and some men's clothes. She She gave a fond farewell to the Queen and her son before continuing on to a new city. As she walked along the road, the girl admired the big cows with their silky coats and softly tinkling cowbells. They grazed in the rolling green pastures on either side of the road. The sky was a cloudless blue, and the buzzing of the bees provided a calming drone to her walk. Soon, she arrived in another beautiful city, spread out beneath a tall castle. The girl heard that there was some trouble with the king's son, and went up to the castle, claiming to be a doctor from a far away.

Starting point is 00:19:00 far away land. The king greeted her anxiously. No doctor for miles around had been able to discover what was wrong with the sun. The poor boy raved day and night. The girl, in her doctor's disguise, asked to be shown to the boy's room. When she was alone in the room, she looked under the bed and found a trap door. The girl opened the door and followed the dark passage below. The parrot breaks off again. This time the insistent knocking at the door comes from a woman claiming to be the merchant's sister, the girl's aunt.

Starting point is 00:20:00 She says that she has come to check up on her young niece. Though the parrot and the merchant's daughter do not know it, this woman is an imposter, hired by the king to gain access to the girl. The merchant's daughter is so eager to hear what happens next in the story that she hardly hears the woman at all. She calls back that she says, that she will not accept any visitors

Starting point is 00:20:32 until her father returns. She urges the parrot to continue with its story. At the end of the long corridor was a dim room taken up almost completely by a large black cauldron. The girl hid in the shadows

Starting point is 00:20:58 and watched as an old woman picked up a glowing red jewel from a cage on the wall and put it in the cauldron. The old woman laughed to herself, revealing that the ruby jewel was the heart of the prince, and her potion was making him mad. The girl waited until the old woman went to sit in her old rickety rocking chair and fell asleep. Then she fished out the red jewel and climbed back up to the prince's bedroom. The girl got the prince to swallow the jewel,

Starting point is 00:21:47 thus returning his heart to him and curing him. They boarded up the trapdoor under his bed and the girl revealed her true identity to the prince and the king. The king was overjoyed to have his son returned to full health. He had promised half of his kingdom to the doctor who cured his son. But since she was a woman, the king offered her the hand of the prince. The merchant's daughter sighs in satisfaction. She tells her parrot how much she loves the story

Starting point is 00:22:33 and thanks him for being such a good friend to her. She supposes that now the story is over, she should probably let in the woman that claims to be her aunt. The parrot calls to her just as she is about to open the door and tells her the story is not over yet. The merchant's daughter smiles with glee and rushes back to her chair next to the parrot. The girl again refused the offer of a handsome prince to marry

Starting point is 00:23:11 and decided to move on to another city. As she walked, the girl thought about her journey so far. When she was a princess, she had many fine things and wanted for nothing, but she felt like her life was just rolling by without leaving an imprint on the world around her. She thought about how she was barely more useful than the doll her father had made for her. Now that she was in the world and fending for herself, she felt. felt more powerful than ever before. She used her mind to solve problems. She did good deeds for others.

Starting point is 00:24:05 The more she thought about it, the less she wanted to marry a handsome prince and become trapped in a castle with all the pretty things once again. The next city that the girl came to had yet a nice. another king with yet another prince under a spell. This prince was unable to talk, and the king was offering half his kingdom to the man who could cure his son. The girl, in her doctor's disguise, went up to the castle and offered her services. She told the story of how she had saved the last prince, though she left out her identity

Starting point is 00:24:54 as a young woman. The king agreed to give her a chance and had a servant lead her to the prince's room. The prince laid in bed all the time, unable to speak or communicate with anyone. The girl sent the servant away, climbed into the wardrobe and hid until nightfall. That night she saw the window of the prince's room open and two witches creep in. Someone knocks on the door again. The merchant's daughter doesn't even hear it. The parrot pauses only for a moment before continuing on.

Starting point is 00:25:48 The witches climbed into the room and went to the prince. They removed a pebble from his mouth. The prince was suddenly able to speak again. He begged the witches to leave him be, but the evil witches merely cackled and replaced the pebble. By morning, the witches were gone, and the prince was unable to speak once again. The next night, the girl hid under the bed. When the witches came in, they removed the pebble and tormented the prince. As they were about to put the pebble back in his mouth, the girl Yanked on the bedclothes and the pebble fell. It rolled onto the floor before the witches had

Starting point is 00:26:50 time to grab it. The girl snatched the pebble and hid it in her pocket. The witches spent the rest of the night searching desperately for the pebble. When dawn began to break, they were forced to leave through the window once again. Without the cursed pebble, the prince was cured. The girl revealed her identity, and once again she was offered the hand of a handsome prince, but the king also insisted that she'd take up duties as the royal physician. The merchant's daughter claps. her hands and marvels at the wonderful story.

Starting point is 00:27:43 The knocking comes from the door, and the merchant's daughter looks surprised. She asks the parrot if there is any more to the story, or if she should answer the door. With only a moment's hesitation, the parrot tells her that there is one last part of the story. The merchant's daughter yells over her shoulder for the visitor to go away and turns her attention back to the parrot. This offer of being a royal physician was very tempting to the girl, but she had to follow her heart. She thanked the king for the offer and took her leave.

Starting point is 00:28:32 Perhaps she would have liked to be the queen and the royal physician, but there was something missing. The whole world called to her, and she couldn't imagine settling down without seeing every corner of it. She came at last to another city. Before going up to the castle, the girl asked the residence, if there was a handsome young prince in need of a wife. They assured her that there was no prince because their king was quite young. The girl asked about their queen

Starting point is 00:29:17 and the residents of the city became quiet. Intrigued, the girl made her way up to the palace still in her doctor's disguise. She was taken before the king by his loyal and worried servants. They told her about their king's predicament. The king had gone out riding a few weeks ago and had come across another king who had been robbed by bandits. The older king was all alone, except for a very lifelike doll.

Starting point is 00:30:01 He wailed and cried endlessly about his daughter, who had been carried off. The younger king helped the older man onto a horse and sent a few of his men with the older king to make sure he got home safely. The young king, once he was alone, went over to the doll to take a closer look at it. He fell instantly in love with the doll and brought it back home with him. Over the ensuing months, he slowly fell into madness with love for a girl who was not real. The girl understood immediately what had happened, but for the first time she was unsure how to fix it. If she revealed herself to the king, he would simply fall in love with her and she would

Starting point is 00:31:06 be forced to break his heart. She decided to stay at the castle for a while before deciding on a course of action. The girl took all her meals with the king and the doll. She asked him questions and tried to get to know his character outside of his madness. It took weeks and then months and then a year had gone by before the girl realized that she had fallen in love with the young king. Her course of action was clear. The girl revealed herself and the king knew who she was at once.

Starting point is 00:31:58 He exclaimed that she was his love and proposed to her on the spot. The girl did not accept right away. She told him of her adventures and her self-discovery. She told him that she would only be the queen if she could have her. have the freedom to do as she pleased. The knocking comes again, and the merchant's daughter looks at the parrot. She asks if there is any more, or if she should answer the door. The parrot searches for a way to continue the story, but cannot find one.

Starting point is 00:32:46 The knocking comes again, but this time it is a comfortable. by the voice of the merchant. He tells his daughter that she can unlock the door and let him in. The parrot tells the girl that the last bit of the story was simply, They lived happily ever after, and the girl goes to let her father in. The merchant comes bustling into the house, bestowing gifts on his daughter from his his successful trip, and listening to her as she recounts the story of the parrot.

Starting point is 00:33:28 The merchant congratulates his daughter on not opening the door while he was away. Just as he was coming home now, he passed the king and heard him grumbling about how difficult these women made it these days to be wooed. The king has sworn off. trying to woo her, which is a great relief to both father and daughter. The girl tells her father that had it not been for the parrot, she might have opened the door to the king's servants. Both father and daughter turn to the parrot to thank the bird,

Starting point is 00:34:13 but find a man standing before them. He introduces himself as a young king from a nearby kingdom. He was put under a spell by a sorcerer and turned into a parrot many years ago. His task to break the spell was to complete a selfless act. protecting the merchant's daughter, he broke the spell. The merchant becomes aware of the tension in the room between his daughter and the young king. He thinks about the way this youth entertained and protected his daughter honorably.

Starting point is 00:35:12 He also thinks about a life where he his daughter has to spend half her time cooped up in the house while he goes away on business. The merchant comes to a decision. Within the month, the merchant's daughter and the young king are married. They have the ceremony on the shores of the lake, with the towering snow-capped mountain behind them. As the merchant watches his daughter beam with joy, he is overcome with the bittersweet feeling of all parents

Starting point is 00:35:59 when they let their child go free. The young king and his new bride build their lives on love and stories. And they always keep a parrot. You know, I'm going to be able to be. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Starting point is 00:37:17 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Starting point is 00:39:55 Thank you. We're going to be. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Starting point is 00:40:11 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - The Parrot’s Dreamy Tale

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