Magic Words (Encore)

Speaker 1 Get more, nothing much happens with bonus episodes, extra-long stories, and ad-free listening, all while supporting the show you love. Subscribe now.

Speaker 2 The holidays mean more travel, more shopping, more time online, and more personal info in more places that could expose you more to identity theft.

Speaker 2 But LifeLock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, our U.S.-based restoration specialists will fix it guaranteed or your money back.

Speaker 2 Don't face drained accounts, fraudulent loans, or financial losses alone. Get more holiday fun and less holiday worry with Life Lock.
Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com/slash podcast.

Speaker 2 Terms apply.

Speaker 3 K Jeweler's Black Friday sale is on. Now's the time to get up to 50% off Black Friday deals.
With savings this big, you can get gifts for everyone on your list.

Speaker 3 Plus, if Black Friday lines aren't your thing, skip them. At Kay, you can buy online and pick up in store or get free shipping right to your home.

Speaker 3 This holiday season, unwrap love and savings with Kay. Exclusions Apply.
ck.com slash exclusions for details.

Speaker 1 Welcome to bedtime stories for everyone.

Speaker 1 In which

Speaker 1 nothing much happens.

Speaker 1 You feel good.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 1 you fall asleep.

Speaker 1 I'm Catherine Nikolai.

Speaker 1 I write and read all the stories you hear on Nothing Much Happens.

Speaker 1 Audio Engineering is by Bob Wittersheim.

Speaker 1 We are bringing you an encore episode tonight, meaning that this story originally aired at some point in the past. It could have been recorded with different equipment in a different location.

Speaker 1 And since I'm a person and not a computer, I sometimes sound just slightly different.

Speaker 1 But the stories are always soothing and family-friendly. And our wishes for you are always deep rest and sweet dreams.

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 sleep should be easy.

Speaker 1 I can help.

Speaker 1 I'm going to tell you a simple, low-stake story full of relaxing details.

Speaker 1 All you have to do is listen. Rest your mind on the sound of my voice

Speaker 1 and it will work like a lullaby.

Speaker 1 Before you know it, you'll be waking up tomorrow feeling rested.

Speaker 1 I'll tell the story twice, and I'll go a little slower the second time through.

Speaker 1 If you wake in the night,

Speaker 1 you could turn the story right back on

Speaker 1 or just think through any of the details you can remember.

Speaker 1 Now

Speaker 1 it's time to turn out the light

Speaker 1 and set down your stuff.

Speaker 1 Maybe this is a moment you've been waiting for all day

Speaker 1 to slide down into your sheets

Speaker 1 and know that nothing more is needed from you.

Speaker 1 It's okay to

Speaker 1 just rest now.

Speaker 1 Take a slow breath in

Speaker 1 and sigh.

Speaker 1 Again, in through the nose,

Speaker 1 out through your mouth.

Speaker 1 Good.

Speaker 1 Our story tonight is called Magic Words.

Speaker 1 And it's a story about a trip into town on a summer morning.

Speaker 1 It's also about the scent of fresh-cut lumber,

Speaker 1 a dog biscuit buried in the flower beds.

Speaker 1 How a moment at the start of your day can alter your path

Speaker 1 and something in a shop window that catches your eye.

Speaker 1 Magic words

Speaker 1 The morning started early this time of year

Speaker 1 and I found myself waking most days

Speaker 1 just after the sun was up,

Speaker 1 listening to the birds outside my window,

Speaker 1 and smelling the fresh summer air.

Speaker 1 This morning I caught the scent of last night's rainstorm.

Speaker 1 It had blown over,

Speaker 1 and the day would likely be sunny and clear.

Speaker 1 But the rain soaked scent lingered and smelled so good.

Speaker 1 I thought of the clover growing around my front steps,

Speaker 1 the cosmos in their window boxes,

Speaker 1 and the black locust tree in my yard,

Speaker 1 all

Speaker 1 drinking deep

Speaker 1 and feeling refreshed.

Speaker 1 Just as I sat up in bed, began to stretch and blink at the morning light,

Speaker 1 I remembered what day it was.

Speaker 1 It was the first of the month,

Speaker 1 and I smiled and spoke my magic words aloud.

Speaker 1 Rabbit, rabbit.

Speaker 1 Maybe you have heard of this superstition.

Speaker 1 Just a silly tradition that some people follow, including me,

Speaker 1 for those words to be the first thing out of your mouth on the morning of a new month.

Speaker 1 It was supposed to bring luck

Speaker 1 and prosperity,

Speaker 1 and whether or not it did,

Speaker 1 it always made me smile,

Speaker 1 which is its own kind of good fortune and wealth.

Speaker 1 My

Speaker 1 rabbit-rabbit habit

Speaker 1 had started me thinking

Speaker 1 about my first words most days,

Speaker 1 not just once a month.

Speaker 1 I found it was a way to lay a path for me to walk on

Speaker 1 the rest of the day,

Speaker 1 just by organizing my thoughts

Speaker 1 and speaking a word or two.

Speaker 1 When I first woke up,

Speaker 1 I'd close my eyes

Speaker 1 and open a little question mark space inside myself.

Speaker 1 What needed my attention today?

Speaker 1 What direction should I lean in?

Speaker 1 Usually, within a second or two,

Speaker 1 some thought would edge to the front and raise its hand

Speaker 1 and I would speak its name out loud,

Speaker 1 saying

Speaker 1 kindness,

Speaker 1 patience,

Speaker 1 fun,

Speaker 1 balance, whatever it was.

Speaker 1 Then, through the day,

Speaker 1 when I needed a nudge, I'd find it,

Speaker 1 having been planted already in my head and heart.

Speaker 1 So they were my magic words.

Speaker 1 Rabbit, rabbit being the less serious cousin of those daily mantras.

Speaker 1 It seemed like a good day

Speaker 1 to be a little less serious, too.

Speaker 1 From the window, I could see the puddles drying on the sidewalk

Speaker 1 and the sun coming out bright and warm.

Speaker 1 A good morning to walk into town

Speaker 1 and treat myself to breakfast and a cup of coffee.

Speaker 1 Within a few minutes, I was stepping out of the house,

Speaker 1 pulling the door shut behind me

Speaker 1 and tromping across the damp lawn and my sandals.

Speaker 1 For a moment, I thought I might be chilled in my t-shirt.

Speaker 1 But as soon as I stepped out from under the shade of the locust tree

Speaker 1 and felt the sun on my skin,

Speaker 1 I was warmed through.

Speaker 1 I crossed the street and found a pace that woke me up.

Speaker 1 I love a walk in the morning.

Speaker 1 And I knew that being out in the sun at this part of the day

Speaker 1 would help my internal clock stay regulated,

Speaker 1 would help to give me a better night's sleep tonight.

Speaker 1 I turned at the corner and passed a yard edged with a newly built fence.

Speaker 1 The fresh cut wood smelled so good

Speaker 1 in the morning air.

Speaker 1 I slowed to breathe it in

Speaker 1 and to spy through the slats.

Speaker 1 This neighbor had a little brown dog

Speaker 1 that I'd met before on my walks.

Speaker 1 And lately, he'd had a friend,

Speaker 1 a big greyhound, out in the yard with him.

Speaker 1 Funnily,

Speaker 1 I knew both their names, but had no idea what their humans were called,

Speaker 1 though we'd met more than once.

Speaker 1 Sure enough, when I peeked through the fence,

Speaker 1 I could see Crum,

Speaker 1 the little one, digging a hole I was fairly sure he was not supposed to be digging beside the patio,

Speaker 1 while Birdie, the greyhound,

Speaker 1 lay in a patch of sunlight, clearly well into his first nap of the morning.

Speaker 1 I chuckled under my breath at them,

Speaker 1 and Crum caught me looking.

Speaker 1 He had a biscuit in his mouth,

Speaker 1 which he was just about to drop into the hole he'd dug.

Speaker 1 But now that I'd seen his hiding place, he huffed and trotted around the edge of the house to dig another.

Speaker 1 Oh dear,

Speaker 1 that second hole would be my fault.

Speaker 1 I walked on.

Speaker 1 I I passed the corner store

Speaker 1 and saw that their front window was full of beach umbrellas,

Speaker 1 little buckets with matching shovels,

Speaker 1 and even a few pool floats, blown up and ready to launch.

Speaker 1 I appreciated

Speaker 1 how little rhyme or reason this store had to its inventory.

Speaker 1 You could buy alfalfa sprouts,

Speaker 1 fireplace matches,

Speaker 1 little squares of homemade salted caramel,

Speaker 1 a lotto ticket, and a rainbow inner tube, all in one spot,

Speaker 1 about a twentieth of the size of the big grocery store outside of town.

Speaker 1 Maybe I'd stop on my way home and see what silly selections I could make.

Speaker 1 Just as I turned back to the sidewalk,

Speaker 1 I spotted something pale moving through the yard of the house opposite.

Speaker 1 And as my eyes focused,

Speaker 1 I realized what it was:

Speaker 1 a rabbit,

Speaker 1 a real rabbit.

Speaker 1 It had stopped in place as I walked closer

Speaker 1 and seemed unconcerned with me.

Speaker 1 It was munching on a hosta leaf,

Speaker 1 small cheeks moving at a clip.

Speaker 1 I stood and just watched for a bit.

Speaker 1 I wondered if I had called her here today

Speaker 1 with my magic words,

Speaker 1 or if somehow she had called me.

Speaker 1 Finally, I walked on,

Speaker 1 leaving her to her breakfast

Speaker 1 and thinking of my own.

Speaker 1 I had options, and they were all good ones.

Speaker 1 There was the diner with its vinyl booths and those spinny stools along the counter.

Speaker 1 They served excellent sweet potato hash

Speaker 1 as well as very good biscuits and gravy.

Speaker 1 Their coffee was reliable, if a bit basic.

Speaker 1 And the people watching was top tier.

Speaker 1 Then there was the bakery, their front walk full of tables and umbrellas.

Speaker 1 They had fancy lattes and every kind of pastry or bagel that I could want.

Speaker 1 Oh, and the farmer's market was also open this morning. And they had a waffle truck.

Speaker 1 Come on, that sounds pretty great.

Speaker 1 Waffles amid the bustling fruit and vegetable stalls.

Speaker 1 I was at a literal crossroads,

Speaker 1 trying to decide which way to turn

Speaker 1 to follow the true desire of my taste buds.

Speaker 1 When I looked over my shoulder, and spotted in the window of the tea shop

Speaker 1 a small porcelain rabbit.

Speaker 1 I stepped closer and saw the tiny cracks in her glaze,

Speaker 1 the delicate pink of her nose,

Speaker 1 and thought it had been a while

Speaker 1 since I'd had a cup of their matcha to start my day.

Speaker 1 I loved their homemade granola and almond milk,

Speaker 1 and thought that my magic words

Speaker 1 hadn't yet led me astray.

Speaker 1 So I may as well follow them a bit longer.

Speaker 1 Magic words.

Speaker 1 The mornings started early

Speaker 1 this time of year,

Speaker 1 and I found myself waking most days

Speaker 1 just after the sun was up,

Speaker 1 listening to the birds outside my window,

Speaker 1 and smelling the fresh summer air.

Speaker 1 This morning I caught the scent of last night's rainstorm.

Speaker 1 It had blown over,

Speaker 1 and the day would likely be sunny and clear.

Speaker 1 But that rain-soaked scent lingered

Speaker 1 and smelled so good.

Speaker 1 I thought of the clover growing around my front steps,

Speaker 1 the cosmos in their window boxes,

Speaker 1 and the black locust tree in my yard,

Speaker 1 all drinking deep

Speaker 1 and feeling refreshed.

Speaker 1 Just as I sat up in bed

Speaker 1 and began to stretch and blink at the morning light,

Speaker 1 I remembered what day it was.

Speaker 1 It was the first of the month

Speaker 1 and I smiled and spoke my magic words aloud.

Speaker 1 Rabbit, rabbit.

Speaker 1 Maybe you have heard of this superstition.

Speaker 1 Just a silly tradition that some people, including me, follow.

Speaker 1 For those words to be the first thing out of your mouth

Speaker 1 on the morning of a new month,

Speaker 1 it was supposed to bring luck and prosperity.

Speaker 1 And whether or not it did,

Speaker 1 it always made me smile,

Speaker 1 which is its own kind of good fortune and wealth.

Speaker 1 My rabbit-rabbit habit

Speaker 1 had started me thinking about my first words most days,

Speaker 1 not just once a month.

Speaker 1 I found it was a way to

Speaker 1 lay a path for me to walk on

Speaker 1 the rest of the day

Speaker 1 just by organizing my thoughts

Speaker 1 and speaking a word or two

Speaker 1 when I first woke up,

Speaker 1 I'd close my eyes

Speaker 1 and open up a little question mark space inside myself.

Speaker 1 What needed my attention today?

Speaker 1 What direction

Speaker 1 should I lean in?

Speaker 1 Usually within a second or two,

Speaker 1 some thought

Speaker 1 would

Speaker 1 edge to the front

Speaker 1 and raise its hand,

Speaker 1 and I would speak its name out loud,

Speaker 1 saying

Speaker 1 kindness,

Speaker 1 patience,

Speaker 1 fun,

Speaker 1 balance, whatever it was.

Speaker 1 Then through the day,

Speaker 1 when I needed a nudge, I'd find it,

Speaker 1 having already been planted in my head and heart.

Speaker 1 So they were my magic words

Speaker 1 rabbit, rabbit, being

Speaker 1 the less serious cousin of those daily mantras.

Speaker 1 It seemed like a good day to be a little less serious, too.

Speaker 1 From the window, I could see the puddles drying on the sidewalk

Speaker 1 and the sun coming out bright and warm.

Speaker 1 A good morning to walk into town

Speaker 1 and treat myself to breakfast and a cup of coffee.

Speaker 1 Within a few minutes, I was stepping out of the house,

Speaker 1 pulling the door shut behind me,

Speaker 1 and tromping across the damp lawn in my sandals.

Speaker 1 For a moment, I thought I might be chilled in my T-shirt.

Speaker 1 But as soon as I stepped out from under the shade of the locust tree,

Speaker 1 I felt the sun on my skin

Speaker 1 was warmed through.

Speaker 1 I crossed the street and found a pace that woke me up.

Speaker 1 I love a walk in the morning.

Speaker 1 And I knew that being out in the sun at this part of the day

Speaker 1 would help my internal clock stay regulated,

Speaker 1 would help to give me a better night's sleep tonight.

Speaker 1 I turned at the corner and passed a yard edged with a newly built fence.

Speaker 1 The fresh-cut wood smelled so good in the morning air.

Speaker 1 I slowed to breathe it in

Speaker 1 and to spy through the slats.

Speaker 1 This neighbor had a little brown dog that I'd met before on my walks

Speaker 1 and lately he'd had a friend,

Speaker 1 a big greyhound, out in the yard with him.

Speaker 1 Funnily, I knew both their names,

Speaker 1 but had no idea what their humans were called,

Speaker 1 though we'd met more than once.

Speaker 1 Sure enough, when I peeked through the fence, I could see Crumb, the little one,

Speaker 1 digging a hole I was fairly sure

Speaker 1 he was not supposed to be digging beside the patio, patio,

Speaker 1 while Birdie the Greyhound lay in a patch of sunlight,

Speaker 1 clearly well into his first nap of the morning.

Speaker 1 I chuckled under my breath at them,

Speaker 1 and Crumb caught me looking.

Speaker 1 He had a biscuit in his mouth, which

Speaker 1 he was just about to drop into the

Speaker 1 But now that I'd seen his hiding place,

Speaker 1 he huffed and trotted around the edge of the house to dig another.

Speaker 1 Oh dear.

Speaker 1 That second hole would be my fault.

Speaker 1 I walked on.

Speaker 1 I passed the corner store

Speaker 1 and saw that their front window was full full of beach umbrellas,

Speaker 1 little buckets with matching shovels,

Speaker 1 and even a few pool floats

Speaker 1 blown up and ready to launch.

Speaker 1 I appreciated how little rhyme or reason this store

Speaker 1 had to its inventory.

Speaker 1 You could buy

Speaker 1 alfalfa sprouts,

Speaker 1 fireplace matches,

Speaker 1 little squares of homemade salted caramel,

Speaker 1 a lotto ticket, and a rainbow inner tube,

Speaker 1 all in one spot,

Speaker 1 about a twentieth the size of the big grocery store outside of town.

Speaker 1 Maybe I'd stop on my way home and see what silly selections I could make.

Speaker 1 Just as I turned back to the sidewalk,

Speaker 1 I spotted something pale

Speaker 1 moving through the yard of the house opposite.

Speaker 1 And as my eyes focused,

Speaker 1 I realized what it was

Speaker 1 a rabbit.

Speaker 1 A real

Speaker 1 rabbit.

Speaker 1 It stopped in place as I walked closer,

Speaker 1 but seemed unconcerned with me.

Speaker 1 It was munching on a hostile leaf,

Speaker 1 small cheeks moving at a clip.

Speaker 1 I stood and just watched it for a bit.

Speaker 1 I wondered if I had called her here today

Speaker 1 with my magic words,

Speaker 1 or if

Speaker 1 somehow she had called me.

Speaker 1 Finally, I walked on,

Speaker 1 leaving her to her breakfast and thinking of my own.

Speaker 1 I had options,

Speaker 1 and they were all good ones.

Speaker 1 There was the diner

Speaker 1 with its vinyl booths, and the spinny stools along the counter.

Speaker 1 They served excellent sweet potato hash,

Speaker 1 as well as very good biscuits and gravy.

Speaker 1 Their coffee was reliable, if a bit basic,

Speaker 1 and the people watching was top tier.

Speaker 1 Then there was the bakery.

Speaker 1 Their front walk was full of tables and umbrellas.

Speaker 1 And they had fancy lattes and every kind of pastry

Speaker 1 or bagel that I could want.

Speaker 1 Oh, and the farmer's market was also open this morning and they had a waffle truck

Speaker 1 come on that sounds pretty great

Speaker 1 waffles amid the bustling fruit and vegetable stalls

Speaker 1 I was at a literal crossroads

Speaker 1 trying to decide which way to turn

Speaker 1 to follow the true desire of my taste buds

Speaker 1 when I looked over my shoulder

Speaker 1 and spotted

Speaker 1 in the window of the tea shop

Speaker 1 a small porcelain rabbit.

Speaker 1 I stepped closer and saw the tiny cracks in her glaze,

Speaker 1 the delicate pink of her nose,

Speaker 1 and thought that it had been a while

Speaker 1 since I'd had a cup of matcha

Speaker 1 to start my day.

Speaker 1 I loved their homemade granola

Speaker 1 and almond milk,

Speaker 1 and thought

Speaker 1 my magic words hadn't yet led me astray,

Speaker 1 so I may as well

Speaker 1 follow them a bit longer.

Speaker 1 Sweet dreams.