The Labyrinth (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 Don't you want that Max?

Speaker 3 Cooper loves that shoe, too. Oh, now he's into Cooper's food.

Speaker 2 Wow, he is loving it.

Speaker 3 What do you feed Cooper? Blue Buffalo life protection formula. He never leaves a crumb.

Speaker 3 I love it because it's made with high-quality protein, nutrient-rich fruits and veggies, and wholesome whole grains. Looks like we're switching to blue.

Speaker 2 Blue Buffalo foods are made with the superior ingredients your dog needs to thrive. Can your dog food say that? Visit feedbluefood.com to learn more.

Speaker 3 Charlie Sheen is an icon of decadence.

Speaker 4 I lit the fuse and my life turns into everything it wasn't supposed to be.

Speaker 3 He's going the distance. He was the highest paid TV star of all time.
When it started to change, it was quick.

Speaker 3 He kept saying, no, no, no, I'm in the hospital now, but next week I'll be ready for the show. Now, Charlie's sober.
He's gonna tell you the truth.

Speaker 4 How do I present this with any class?

Speaker 3 I think we're past that, Charlie.

Speaker 4 We're past that, yeah.

Speaker 1 Somebody call action.

Speaker 3 AKA Charlie Sheen, only on Netflix, September 10th.

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 you fall asleep.

Speaker 1 I'm Catherine Nikolai.

Speaker 1 I write and read

Speaker 1 all the stories you hear on Nothing Much Happens.

Speaker 1 Audio Engineering is by Bob Witterchime.

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 let's get ready to sleep.

Speaker 1 I'll read you a story.

Speaker 1 It's a place to rest your mind,

Speaker 1 like an upturned leaf resting on the surface of a river.

Speaker 1 Your mind will follow along with the moving current of my voice and our story.

Speaker 1 And before you know it,

Speaker 1 it will ease you into a deep sleep.

Speaker 1 I'll read the story twice, and I'll go a little slower on the second read.

Speaker 1 If you wake in the night, take yourself back into the story,

Speaker 1 thinking back through any bit you can remember.

Speaker 1 This interrupts your brain's tendency to cycle through thought

Speaker 1 and will put you right back into sleep mode.

Speaker 1 It is brain training, and it might take a bit of practice. So be patient if you are new to this.

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 it's time to switch off the light.

Speaker 1 Set down anything you've been looking at.

Speaker 1 You've looked at a screen for the last time today.

Speaker 1 Adjust your pillows and comforter until you feel completely at ease.

Speaker 1 If you sometimes clench your jaw as you sleep, try resting the tip of your tongue at the place where your upper teeth meet the gums on the inside.

Speaker 1 That will help to keep your jaw relaxed.

Speaker 1 Now take a deep breath in through your nose

Speaker 1 and sigh out of your mouth.

Speaker 1 Again, breathe in

Speaker 1 and out with sound.

Speaker 1 Good.

Speaker 1 Our story tonight is called The Labyrinth,

Speaker 1 and it's a story about a slow walk on a gravel path in midsummer.

Speaker 1 It's also about hidden places, unseen acts of kindness,

Speaker 1 the way cats sit in their windows,

Speaker 1 and always, always

Speaker 1 looking for magic.

Speaker 1 The Labyrinth

Speaker 1 In the gardens of the big house,

Speaker 1 on the far side of an open meadow,

Speaker 1 where deer have worn narrow trails through the grass,

Speaker 1 there is a stone wall that was built when our great grandparents were children.

Speaker 1 And often when I am out there,

Speaker 1 my shoes damp with dew on a summer morning,

Speaker 1 I feel like it's possible

Speaker 1 to slip through time.

Speaker 1 I look across the meadow

Speaker 1 and watch purple cone flowers bobbing in the wind,

Speaker 1 and listen to whipper wells

Speaker 1 and morning doves

Speaker 1 layering their calls one over the other

Speaker 1 and think that this hour could belong to a day from a hundred years before

Speaker 1 and that maybe

Speaker 1 through some trick of the unseen world

Speaker 1 by stepping into a footprint laid deep in the ground

Speaker 1 or passing under a particular branch at the right moment

Speaker 1 when the moon is at a certain place in the sky

Speaker 1 with Venus rising over her shoulder

Speaker 1 I might have fallen out of the fabric of time

Speaker 1 and into another moment

Speaker 1 this little bit of fanciful imagination

Speaker 1 is a leftover from childhood

Speaker 1 I'm still looking for the door into the other world.

Speaker 1 I might run my hands over the stone wall,

Speaker 1 feeling the smooth rock face

Speaker 1 and the rough gravelly mortar,

Speaker 1 and find a tiny hole

Speaker 1 that could be a keyhole,

Speaker 1 and then check my pockets, just in case a wrought iron iron skeleton key

Speaker 1 had somehow been magicked there for me to find.

Speaker 1 I doubt I'll ever lose this little habit of looking for magic.

Speaker 1 On this morning,

Speaker 1 the mist,

Speaker 1 made from warm air floating over the lake,

Speaker 1 was still lingering around the edge of the water,

Speaker 1 and between tree trunks,

Speaker 1 like cotton batting

Speaker 1 that had been stuffed into place

Speaker 1 by invisible hands.

Speaker 1 I went around the edge of the stone wall,

Speaker 1 a wide-brimmed straw hat in my hand,

Speaker 1 in preparation for when the sun made its way over the tree tops.

Speaker 1 the air smelled sweet,

Speaker 1 like grass and lake water,

Speaker 1 and had that cool, clean feeling

Speaker 1 that rejuvenates you when you breathe it in.

Speaker 1 How lovely

Speaker 1 to be reminded

Speaker 1 that every morning can be a fresh start,

Speaker 1 that you can begin again

Speaker 1 just by deciding to.

Speaker 1 I kept walking,

Speaker 1 with the stone wall receding behind me,

Speaker 1 and the grass becoming thinner at my feet.

Speaker 1 I was almost there now.

Speaker 1 The labyrinth was in front of me,

Speaker 1 and this morning

Speaker 1 I looked to be the only one here to walk it.

Speaker 1 Though even on days,

Speaker 1 when there were many people out to stroll its paths,

Speaker 1 it was always a quiet place.

Speaker 1 People didn't come here to chat or socialize.

Speaker 1 They might give you a small wave

Speaker 1 or a kind, acknowledging nod,

Speaker 1 but they'd leave you to your walk,

Speaker 1 and you'd leave them to theirs.

Speaker 1 Labyrinths come in all sorts of shapes and styles,

Speaker 1 and I've walked them in many places around the world.

Speaker 1 I've found them in city squares,

Speaker 1 in front of old cathedrals,

Speaker 1 made of polished marble and granite,

Speaker 1 laid out in an intricate pattern in the street.

Speaker 1 I've found them in the woods,

Speaker 1 made from fallen branches,

Speaker 1 in city parks,

Speaker 1 drawn with bright lines of spray paint,

Speaker 1 and, of course,

Speaker 1 here beside the gardens of the big house,

Speaker 1 where its paths and hedges are just visible from the map room.

Speaker 1 This labyrinth has paths bordered by low shrubs that are trimmed neatly so their even tops are only a foot above the ground.

Speaker 1 You can see where the path takes you.

Speaker 1 There's no secret about it.

Speaker 1 That's the difference between a maze and a labyrinth.

Speaker 1 A maze asks you to solve a puzzle.

Speaker 1 It might trick you into a dead end

Speaker 1 and send you back to to try another route.

Speaker 1 But a labyrinth is just giving you somewhere to place your feet

Speaker 1 and a way to practice journeying with calm attention.

Speaker 1 It might take you down a winding trail

Speaker 1 that turns back and forth again and again

Speaker 1 before you arrive at its center.

Speaker 1 But it's nothing to unravel or conquer.

Speaker 1 It's just a process of movement.

Speaker 1 The paths themselves were laid with tiny white stones,

Speaker 1 which were regularly and carefully raked by a volunteer from the house at the end of the day.

Speaker 1 I was the first to step onto them this morning

Speaker 1 and I took a moment just to be grateful

Speaker 1 that people were kind enough to care about such things.

Speaker 1 So many kind people

Speaker 1 work behind the scenes of everyday life.

Speaker 1 We We often don't see the bite-sized gestures that are made a million times a day

Speaker 1 to make the world a little softer

Speaker 1 and more welcoming to others.

Speaker 1 But they are still happening.

Speaker 1 I reminded myself to do my own part in that work to day.

Speaker 1 Maybe I'd pick up a bit of garbage along the road,

Speaker 1 or leave the best parking spot for someone else,

Speaker 1 or just

Speaker 1 not take more than I needed.

Speaker 1 It all added up.

Speaker 1 At the edge of the labyrinth path,

Speaker 1 I stopped and slid my feet together underneath me.

Speaker 1 I thought of the way that cats often sit with their front paws together,

Speaker 1 their toes in a row, when they are watching birds outside their windows.

Speaker 1 It seemed like a sign of deliberation and watchfulness.

Speaker 1 So I had adopted it as a habit before I took my first step.

Speaker 1 I caught my hands together behind my back

Speaker 1 and felt my breath moving over my lip.

Speaker 1 Sometimes I brought a specific thought to chew on while I walked.

Speaker 1 And when I did,

Speaker 1 I often found that the steady rhythm of my gait evened my mind out.

Speaker 1 I might not know the answer to a question I'd carried in at the start.

Speaker 1 But by the end,

Speaker 1 I felt more relaxed with not knowing.

Speaker 1 Safe to just keep asking.

Speaker 1 Today,

Speaker 1 after a good night's sleep,

Speaker 1 my mind was already a bit like the lake

Speaker 1 on the other side of the garden,

Speaker 1 a few ripples on the surface,

Speaker 1 but mostly placid and still.

Speaker 1 So just walking,

Speaker 1 feeling the weight shift from heel to toe,

Speaker 1 was the main event,

Speaker 1 and enough to keep my attention.

Speaker 1 I followed the turns in the path,

Speaker 1 let them take me nearly all the way around the labyrinth,

Speaker 1 and then a step closer to its center,

Speaker 1 and nearly all the way around the other way.

Speaker 1 At its heart was a large flat piece of slate,

Speaker 1 with hedges around it trimmed to point to the four cardinal directions

Speaker 1 as I stood there

Speaker 1 the wind picked up around me

Speaker 1 and rushed through the treetops

Speaker 1 I closed my eyes

Speaker 1 and thought

Speaker 1 that maybe in these small moments

Speaker 1 when we feel quite tied into the world

Speaker 1 when we remember we can begin again

Speaker 1 and that our only real work is kindness

Speaker 1 maybe that is when the door opens

Speaker 1 maybe that is magic

Speaker 1 the labyrinth

Speaker 1 in the gardens of the big house

Speaker 1 on the far side of an open meadow

Speaker 1 where deer have worn narrow trails through the grass

Speaker 1 there is a stone wall

Speaker 1 that was built when our great-grandparents were children.

Speaker 1 And often

Speaker 1 when I am out there,

Speaker 1 my shoes damp with dew on a summer morning,

Speaker 1 I feel like

Speaker 1 it's possible

Speaker 1 to slip through time.

Speaker 1 I look across the meadow

Speaker 1 and watch purple cone flowers

Speaker 1 bobbing in the wind

Speaker 1 and listen to whipperwills

Speaker 1 and morning doves

Speaker 1 layering their calls

Speaker 1 one over the other

Speaker 1 and I think that this hour

Speaker 1 could belong to a day

Speaker 1 from a hundred years before,

Speaker 1 and that maybe

Speaker 1 through some trick of the unseen world,

Speaker 1 by stepping into a footprint laid deep in the ground,

Speaker 1 or passing under a particular branch at the right moment,

Speaker 1 when the moon is in a certain place in the sky,

Speaker 1 with Venus rising over her shoulder,

Speaker 1 I might have fallen out of the fabric of time

Speaker 1 and into another moment

Speaker 1 this little bit

Speaker 1 of fanciful imagination.

Speaker 1 It's a leftover from childhood.

Speaker 1 I'm still looking for the door

Speaker 1 into the other world.

Speaker 1 I might run my hands over the stone wall,

Speaker 1 feeling the smooth rock face,

Speaker 1 and the rough gravelly mortar,

Speaker 1 and find a tiny hole

Speaker 1 that could be a keyhole,

Speaker 1 and check my pockets,

Speaker 1 just in case a wrought iron skeleton key

Speaker 1 had somehow been magicked there for me to find.

Speaker 1 I doubt I'll ever stop this little habit of looking for magic.

Speaker 1 On this morning,

Speaker 1 the mist made from warm air floating over the lake

Speaker 1 was still lingering around the edge of the water

Speaker 1 and between tree trunks

Speaker 1 like cotton batting

Speaker 1 that had been stuffed into place

Speaker 1 by invisible hands

Speaker 1 i went around the edge of the stone wall

Speaker 1 a wide-brimmed straw hat in my hand

Speaker 1 in preparation for when the sun made its way over the treetops.

Speaker 1 The air smelled sweet,

Speaker 1 like grass and lake water,

Speaker 1 and had the cool, clean feeling

Speaker 1 that rejuvenates you when you breathe it in.

Speaker 1 How lovely

Speaker 1 to be reminded

Speaker 1 that every morning can be a fresh start

Speaker 1 That you can begin again

Speaker 1 just by deciding to

Speaker 1 I kept walking

Speaker 1 with the stone wall receding receding behind me,

Speaker 1 and the grass becoming thinner at my feet.

Speaker 1 I was almost there now.

Speaker 1 The labyrinth was in front of me,

Speaker 1 and this morning I looked to be the only one

Speaker 1 out here to walk it,

Speaker 1 though even on days days when there are many people

Speaker 1 out to stroll its paths,

Speaker 1 it was always a quiet place.

Speaker 1 People didn't come here to chat or socialize.

Speaker 1 They might give you a small wave

Speaker 1 or kind, acknowledging nod,

Speaker 1 but they'd leave you to your walk

Speaker 1 and you'd leave them to theirs.

Speaker 1 Labyrinths come in all sorts of shapes and styles

Speaker 1 and I've walked them in many places around the world

Speaker 1 I've found them in city squares, in front of old cathedrals,

Speaker 1 made of polished marble and granite,

Speaker 1 laid out in intricate patterns in the street.

Speaker 1 I found them in the woods,

Speaker 1 made from fallen branches,

Speaker 1 in city parks, drawn with bright lines of spray paint,

Speaker 1 and of course, here,

Speaker 1 beside the gardens of the big house,

Speaker 1 where its paths and hedges

Speaker 1 are just visible from the map room,

Speaker 1 this labyrinth has paths bordered by low shrubs

Speaker 1 that are trimmed neatly,

Speaker 1 so their even tops are only a foot above the ground.

Speaker 1 You can see where the path takes you.

Speaker 1 There's no secret about it.

Speaker 1 That's the difference between a maze and a labyrinth.

Speaker 1 A maze asks you to solve a puzzle.

Speaker 1 It might trick you into a dead end

Speaker 1 and send you back to try another route.

Speaker 1 But a labyrinth is just giving you somewhere to place your feet

Speaker 1 and a way to practice journeying with calm attention.

Speaker 1 It might take you down a winding trail

Speaker 1 that turns back and forth

Speaker 1 again and again,

Speaker 1 before you arrive at its centre.

Speaker 1 But it's nothing to unravel or conquer.

Speaker 1 It's just a process of movement.

Speaker 1 The paths themselves were laid with tiny white stones,

Speaker 1 which were regularly and carefully raked by a volunteer from the house at the end of the day.

Speaker 1 I was the first to step onto them this morning,

Speaker 1 and I took a moment

Speaker 1 just to be grateful

Speaker 1 that people were kind enough to care about such things.

Speaker 1 So many kind people

Speaker 1 work behind the scenes of everyday life.

Speaker 1 We often don't see the bite sized gestures that are made a million times a day

Speaker 1 to make the world a little softer

Speaker 1 and more welcoming to others.

Speaker 1 But they are still happening.

Speaker 1 I reminded myself

Speaker 1 to do my own part in that work to day.

Speaker 1 Maybe I'd pick up a bit of garbage along the road,

Speaker 1 or leave the best parking spot for someone else,

Speaker 1 or just not take more than I needed.

Speaker 1 It all added up.

Speaker 1 At the edge of the labyrinth path,

Speaker 1 I stopped

Speaker 1 and slid my feet together underneath me.

Speaker 1 I thought of the way that cats often sit

Speaker 1 with their front paws together,

Speaker 1 their toes in a row,

Speaker 1 when they are watching birds outside their windows.

Speaker 1 It seemed like a sign of deliberation

Speaker 1 and watchfulness.

Speaker 1 So I'd adopted it as a habit

Speaker 1 before I took my first step.

Speaker 1 I caught my hands together behind my back

Speaker 1 and felt my breath moving over my lip.

Speaker 1 Sometimes I brought a specific thought to chew on while I walked,

Speaker 1 and when I did,

Speaker 1 I often found that the steady rhythm of my gait

Speaker 1 evened my mind out.

Speaker 1 I might not know the answer to a question

Speaker 1 I'd carried in at the start.

Speaker 1 But by the end, I felt more relaxed with not knowing

Speaker 1 safe

Speaker 1 to just keep asking.

Speaker 1 Today,

Speaker 1 after a good night's sleep,

Speaker 1 my mind was already a bit like the lake

Speaker 1 on the other side of the garden.

Speaker 1 A few ripples on the surface,

Speaker 1 but mostly placid and still.

Speaker 1 So just walking,

Speaker 1 feeling the weight shift from heel to toe,

Speaker 1 was the main event,

Speaker 1 and enough to keep my attention.

Speaker 1 I followed the turns in the path,

Speaker 1 let them take me nearly all the way around the labyrinth,

Speaker 1 and then a step closer to its center,

Speaker 1 and nearly all the way around the other way.

Speaker 1 At its heart was a large flat piece of slate,

Speaker 1 with hedges around it, trimmed to point to the four cardinal directions.

Speaker 1 As I stood there,

Speaker 1 the wind picked up around me

Speaker 1 and rushed through the treetops.

Speaker 1 I closed my eyes

Speaker 1 and thought that maybe

Speaker 1 in these small moments

Speaker 1 when we feel quite tied into the world,

Speaker 1 when we remember

Speaker 1 that we can begin again,

Speaker 1 and that our only real work is kindness.

Speaker 1 Maybe that is when the door opens,

Speaker 1 maybe that is magic,

Speaker 1 sweet dreams.