Winter Views (Encore)

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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

Speaker 1 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 Just by listening to my voice and following along with the general shape of the story,

Speaker 1 you'll be able to create a reliable response in your brain and nervous system

Speaker 1 so that when you lie in bed at night, when it's time to sleep, you just will.

Speaker 1 The more you practice it, the stronger the response will become.

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

Speaker 1 If you wake again in the night, don't hesitate to turn this or another story right back on.

Speaker 1 Or just think through any detail that you can remember.

Speaker 1 Our story tonight is called Winter Views.

Speaker 1 And it's a story about some different things to enjoy or look forward to in the winter.

Speaker 1 It's also about a cardinal singing from the branches,

Speaker 1 a jar of Huckleberry Jam,

Speaker 1 and the extra minutes of light that come with each day after the solstice.

Speaker 1 Okay,

Speaker 1 lights out, campers.

Speaker 1 It's time.

Speaker 1 Set everything down

Speaker 1 and prioritize your own comfort.

Speaker 1 How do you need to arrange yourself to feel the most relaxed?

Speaker 1 Whatever you did today,

Speaker 1 it was enough.

Speaker 1 Enough has been done.

Speaker 1 So take those last lingering thoughts.

Speaker 1 Let them go.

Speaker 1 They only have the power you give them.

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 slow breath in

Speaker 1 and sigh.

Speaker 1 Again, in through the nose,

Speaker 1 out through the mouth.

Speaker 1 Good.

Speaker 1 Winter views.

Speaker 1 Winter isn't just one thing,

Speaker 1 one feeling,

Speaker 1 one temperature, one scent.

Speaker 1 And that was something I always forgot from the distance of July.

Speaker 1 If I thought of it then,

Speaker 1 All I could come up with was bitter cold,

Speaker 1 a memory of icy air stinging my nostrils,

Speaker 1 one shade of white coating everything.

Speaker 1 And so when I was actually there,

Speaker 1 moving through midwinter,

Speaker 1 it was always a sweet surprise

Speaker 1 when the morning air didn't sting,

Speaker 1 but instead made me feel awake and alive.

Speaker 1 I gulped it down in deep, greedy breaths,

Speaker 1 just as I had the scent of lilacs in the spring

Speaker 1 or summer tomato vines.

Speaker 1 Yes, the light was sometimes gray,

Speaker 1 the days shorter.

Speaker 1 But there is something special that happens at sunset in the winter

Speaker 1 that is uplifting and affirming

Speaker 1 right when you need it most.

Speaker 1 As the sun drops in the sky,

Speaker 1 right before it sets fully,

Speaker 1 it dips below the cloudy haze that blocked it for much of the day.

Speaker 1 And the sky actually gets brighter for a wonderful half hour or so.

Speaker 1 The orange light cuts through the windows.

Speaker 1 It will find you where you sit,

Speaker 1 with your cheek propped in your hand,

Speaker 1 listless from the winter monotony,

Speaker 1 and it will dazzle you.

Speaker 1 Make you

Speaker 1 sit up straight and come to the window

Speaker 1 and look out.

Speaker 1 You might even put on your coat and boots and step outside

Speaker 1 and let it shine on your face for a minute or so.

Speaker 1 And as long as you're out there,

Speaker 1 why not take a brisk walk around the block,

Speaker 1 flush your lungs out,

Speaker 1 and fill yourself up with fresh air.

Speaker 1 These are the bits of winter I forgot about through the rest of the year

Speaker 1 that made me glad to be in this season as it progressed.

Speaker 1 The snow had melted for a few days, and the sidewalks had run with water.

Speaker 1 The hard ground, not able to keep up with how fast things had changed.

Speaker 1 That first day out, my boots had gotten muddy and sodden, though

Speaker 1 I barely noticed.

Speaker 1 I was looking up,

Speaker 1 spotting nests and abandoned hives in the treetops.

Speaker 1 A cardinal sat chirping in the branches,

Speaker 1 and I laughed, wondering if he ever looked down at us

Speaker 1 and sang out, Ooh,

Speaker 1 a human.

Speaker 1 Fair enough.

Speaker 1 Few of us could sing like he did.

Speaker 1 In another day or so, the pavement had dried up,

Speaker 1 and everyone was out,

Speaker 1 taking advantage of the break in the weather.

Speaker 1 Dogs in sweaters, children on bikes they'd gotten for Christmas or Hanukkah.

Speaker 1 And I felt that this too was something I forgot about when I thought of winter.

Speaker 1 It breeds a sort of fellowship.

Speaker 1 We were all feeling the same things as we waved from different sides of the street.

Speaker 1 We all tipped our faces up to the sun and sighed with the relief of it.

Speaker 1 We'd gained about 30 minutes of daylight since the solstice,

Speaker 1 and it felt like such a gift at the end of the day.

Speaker 1 It gave me a bit of a lift

Speaker 1 just to be able to see out to the pines at the back of my yard

Speaker 1 for a little longer each day.

Speaker 1 I often felt that

Speaker 1 as soon as the sun went down, well,

Speaker 1 so was I.

Speaker 1 It made me rush through dinner, and often had me yawning and blinking by seven.

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 just to have a little extra time,

Speaker 1 it inspired me.

Speaker 1 I slowed down.

Speaker 1 I thumbed through a cookbook, or watered my plants,

Speaker 1 or brewed a cup of tea,

Speaker 1 and sipped it from the sofa.

Speaker 1 Our bodies have clockwork tuned up to the seasons and sun, don't they?

Speaker 1 Those early nights to bed had been needed.

Speaker 1 The weeks of doing less were restorative.

Speaker 1 And now things were turning,

Speaker 1 subtly and slowly,

Speaker 1 but surely.

Speaker 1 And I thought about what I might do with the bit of winter that remained.

Speaker 1 It wasn't done snowing, that was for sure.

Speaker 1 These breaks in the weather came and went,

Speaker 1 and we still had plenty of snow days left.

Speaker 1 There was a skating rink downtown,

Speaker 1 and I thought it must be absolutely beautiful

Speaker 1 to skate in the warmth of the late afternoon.

Speaker 1 To stay on the ice as the twinkle lights came on.

Speaker 1 And to go somewhere for a hot cocoa

Speaker 1 after your legs were tired out.

Speaker 1 And there was a film festival at the movie theater.

Speaker 1 I'd seen it advertised in the paper.

Speaker 1 On one screen, they were showing the full filmography of some director

Speaker 1 whose work had been mostly ignored at the time,

Speaker 1 but seemed prescient and current,

Speaker 1 and now was appreciated.

Speaker 1 On another screen,

Speaker 1 there were short films,

Speaker 1 some comic and some serious.

Speaker 1 And in this category, there were even a few local entries.

Speaker 1 It was a way I'd never spent a Saturday.

Speaker 1 All day at the theater, voting on films,

Speaker 1 seeing things I knew nothing about beforehand.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 maybe that was what made it an excellent idea.

Speaker 1 There were also seeds to start.

Speaker 1 Packs of them had come in the mail the week before.

Speaker 1 And the garden club,

Speaker 1 of which I'd become a member last spring,

Speaker 1 had sent out a newsletter

Speaker 1 with instructions for making starting pots from recycled newspaper.

Speaker 1 I could see myself clearing off the counters and rolling up my sleeves.

Speaker 1 I'd make a bit of a mess,

Speaker 1 and it would, no doubt,

Speaker 1 take longer than I'd anticipated.

Speaker 1 But eventually,

Speaker 1 all my little seeds would be tucked into their soil beds

Speaker 1 and waiting to sprout under the lamps.

Speaker 1 This year I was growing dahlias

Speaker 1 and nothing else.

Speaker 1 Just dahlias.

Speaker 1 But I would crack their code

Speaker 1 and grow the biggest double blooms the neighborhood had ever seen.

Speaker 1 What else?

Speaker 1 What else could I look forward to this winter?

Speaker 1 I'd been gifted a membership in the Jam of the Month Club,

Speaker 1 and thought I could make some thumbprint cookies with the first jar that had come.

Speaker 1 It was deep purple,

Speaker 1 huckleberry,

Speaker 1 and I bet they would go perfectly with a cup of coffee in the morning.

Speaker 1 Puzzles and old movies,

Speaker 1 A hike up the crow's nest path in the snow.

Speaker 1 Watching the sun come up a little earlier each morning.

Speaker 1 Paper whites budding on the sill.

Speaker 1 Winter came with so many gifts.

Speaker 1 A hundred different views over the horizon.

Speaker 1 It wasn't one thing.

Speaker 1 It was many.

Speaker 1 Winter views

Speaker 1 Winter isn't just one thing.

Speaker 1 One feeling,

Speaker 1 one temperature,

Speaker 1 one scent.

Speaker 1 And that was something I always forgot

Speaker 1 from the distance of July.

Speaker 1 If I thought of it then,

Speaker 1 all I could come up with was the bitter cold,

Speaker 1 a memory of icy air stinging my nostrils,

Speaker 1 one shade of white coating everything.

Speaker 1 And so

Speaker 1 when I was

Speaker 1 actually there,

Speaker 1 moving through midwinter,

Speaker 1 it was always a sweet surprise

Speaker 1 when the morning air didn't sting,

Speaker 1 but instead made me feel awake and alive.

Speaker 1 I gulped it down in deep, greedy breaths,

Speaker 1 just as I had the scent of lilacs in the spring

Speaker 1 or summer tomato vines.

Speaker 1 Yes, the light was sometimes gray,

Speaker 1 the days shorter.

Speaker 1 But there is something special

Speaker 1 that happens at sunset in the winter

Speaker 1 that is uplifting and affirming right when you need it most.

Speaker 1 As the sun drops in the sky

Speaker 1 right before it fully sets

Speaker 1 it dips below the cloudy haze that blocked it for much of the day

Speaker 1 and the sky actually gets brighter for a wonderful half hour or so.

Speaker 1 The orange light cuts through the windows.

Speaker 1 It will find you where you sit,

Speaker 1 with your cheek propped in your hand,

Speaker 1 listless from the winter monotony,

Speaker 1 and dazzle you.

Speaker 1 Make you

Speaker 1 sit up straight

Speaker 1 and come to the window

Speaker 1 and look out.

Speaker 1 You might even put on your coat and boots

Speaker 1 and step outside

Speaker 1 and let it shine on your face

Speaker 1 for a minute or so.

Speaker 1 and as long as you're out there

Speaker 1 well

Speaker 1 why not take a brisk walk

Speaker 1 around the block

Speaker 1 flush your lungs out

Speaker 1 and fill yourself up with fresh air

Speaker 1 These are the bits of winter I forget about

Speaker 1 through the rest of the year.

Speaker 1 That made me so glad to be in this season as it progressed.

Speaker 1 The snow had melted for a few days,

Speaker 1 and the sidewalks had run with water.

Speaker 1 The hard ground not able to keep up with how fast things had changed.

Speaker 1 That first day out,

Speaker 1 my boots had gotten muddy and sodden,

Speaker 1 though I barely noticed.

Speaker 1 I

Speaker 1 was looking up,

Speaker 1 spotting nests

Speaker 1 and abandoned hives in the tree tops.

Speaker 1 a cardinal sat chirping in the branches,

Speaker 1 and I laughed,

Speaker 1 wondering if he ever looked down at us and sang out,

Speaker 1 ooh,

Speaker 1 a human.

Speaker 1 Fair enough.

Speaker 1 Few of us could sing like he did.

Speaker 1 In another day or so,

Speaker 1 the pavement had dried up,

Speaker 1 and everyone was out,

Speaker 1 taking advantage of the break in the weather.

Speaker 1 Dogs in sweaters,

Speaker 1 children on the bikes they'd gotten for Christmas, or Hanukkah.

Speaker 1 And And I felt that this, too,

Speaker 1 was something I forgot about when I thought of winter.

Speaker 1 It breeds a sort of fellowship.

Speaker 1 We were all feeling the same things

Speaker 1 as we waved from different sides of the street.

Speaker 1 We all tipped our faces up to the sun

Speaker 1 and sighed with the relief of it.

Speaker 1 We'd gained about thirty minutes of daylight since the solstice.

Speaker 1 And it felt like such a gift at the end of the day.

Speaker 1 It gave me a bit of a lift

Speaker 1 just to be able to see out to the pines

Speaker 1 at the back of my yard for a little longer each day.

Speaker 1 I often felt that

Speaker 1 as soon as the sun was down.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 so was I.

Speaker 1 It made me rush through dinner

Speaker 1 and often had me yawning and blinking by seven.

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 just to have

Speaker 1 a little extra time,

Speaker 1 it inspired me.

Speaker 1 I slowed down.

Speaker 1 I thumbed through a cookbook,

Speaker 1 or watered my plants,

Speaker 1 or brewed a cup of tea,

Speaker 1 and sipped it from the sofa.

Speaker 1 Our bodies have clockwork, tuned up to the seasons and the sun, don't they?

Speaker 1 Those early nights to bed, they'd been needed.

Speaker 1 The weeks of doing less were restorative.

Speaker 1 But now

Speaker 1 things were turning

Speaker 1 subtly and slowly,

Speaker 1 but surely.

Speaker 1 And I thought about

Speaker 1 what I might do

Speaker 1 with the bit of winter that remained.

Speaker 1 It wasn't done snowing, that was for sure.

Speaker 1 These breaks in the weather came and went,

Speaker 1 and we still had plenty of snow days left.

Speaker 1 There was a skating rink

Speaker 1 downtown,

Speaker 1 and I thought

Speaker 1 it must be absolutely beautiful

Speaker 1 to skate

Speaker 1 in the warmth of the late afternoon,

Speaker 1 to stay on the ice

Speaker 1 as the twinkle lights came on,

Speaker 1 and then to go somewhere for a hot cocoa

Speaker 1 after your legs were tired out.

Speaker 1 And there was a film festival at the movie theater.

Speaker 1 I'd seen it advertised in the paper.

Speaker 1 On one screen, they were showing the full filmography

Speaker 1 of some director whose work at the time

Speaker 1 had been mostly ignored,

Speaker 1 but seemed prescient

Speaker 1 and current

Speaker 1 and now was appreciated.

Speaker 1 On another screen

Speaker 1 there were short films,

Speaker 1 some comic,

Speaker 1 and some serious

Speaker 1 and in this category

Speaker 1 there were even a few local entries.

Speaker 1 It was a way I'd never spent a Saturday

Speaker 1 all day at the theater,

Speaker 1 voting on films,

Speaker 1 seeing things I knew nothing about beforehand.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 maybe that was what made it an excellent idea.

Speaker 1 There were also seeds to start.

Speaker 1 Packs of them had come in the mail the week before.

Speaker 1 And the garden club,

Speaker 1 of which I'd become a member last spring,

Speaker 1 had sent out a newsletter with instructions for making starting pots

Speaker 1 from recycled newspaper.

Speaker 1 I could see myself clearing off the counters

Speaker 1 and rolling up my sleeves.

Speaker 1 I'd make a bit of a mess and it would no doubt take longer than I anticipated.

Speaker 1 But eventually,

Speaker 1 all my little seeds would be tucked into their soil beds

Speaker 1 and waiting to sprout under the lamps.

Speaker 1 This year,

Speaker 1 I was growing dahlias

Speaker 1 and nothing else,

Speaker 1 just dahlias.

Speaker 1 But I would crack their code

Speaker 1 and grow the biggest double blooms the neighborhood had ever seen.

Speaker 1 What else?

Speaker 1 What else could I look forward to

Speaker 1 this winter?

Speaker 1 Oh, I'd been gifted a membership

Speaker 1 in the jam of the month club

Speaker 1 and thought I could make some thumb print cookies

Speaker 1 with the first jar that had come.

Speaker 1 The jam was deep purple,

Speaker 1 huckleberry,

Speaker 1 and I bet would go perfectly with a cup of coffee in the morning.

Speaker 1 Puzzles and old movies,

Speaker 1 a hike up the crow's nest path in the snow,

Speaker 1 watching the sun come up

Speaker 1 a little earlier each morning,

Speaker 1 paper whites

Speaker 1 budding on the sill.

Speaker 1 Winter came with so many gifts,

Speaker 1 a hundred different views over the horizon.

Speaker 1 It wasn't one thing,

Speaker 1 It was many.

Speaker 1 Sweet dreams.