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When we decided to start selling merch in our wind down box, we knew we needed a behind the scenes partner to make it successful. For big companies like Aloe or Magic Spoon that have healthy sales, an attractive.
B
Brand and good marketing, you might not.
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Realize that a big part of their success is actually the business behind the.
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Business that is making selling simple for.
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Millions of businesses including ours. That business is Shopify. Nobody does selling better than Shopify. Home of the number one checkout on the planet and the not so secret secret. With shop pay sales conversion boosts up to 50%, meaning way less carts going abandoned and way more sales. The secret's out. Businesses that want to grow grow with Shopify. Upgrade your business and get the same checkout allo uses. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com nothing much all lowercase go to shopify.com nothingmuch to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com nothingmuch.
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If you're listening, you know self care is vital for overall wellness, but it can be hard to prioritize yourself and ask for what you need. If you're a veteran going through a tough time, there are people who want to listen and help with no pressure or judgment. Dial 988 then press 1 chat@VeteransCrisisLine.net or text 838255 to reach the Veterans Crisis line.
C
Responders are ready to support you no.
B
Matter what you're going through.
A
Ready for a getaway? Virgin Voyages is the adults only destination for anyone seeking a restorative, luxurious and award winning vacation at sea. They focus on creating relaxing spaces. The cabins are meticulously designed to give you a gorgeous place to feel renewed and Virgin Voyages is exclusively adult. They cater food, entertainment and activities to adult tastes. Explore the Caribbean this winter on one of their week long Caribbean escapes. Learn more@virginvoyages.com or contact your travel advisor.
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Welcome to Bedtime Stories for Everyone in which Nothing Much Happens. You feel good and then you fall asleep. I'm Catherine Nicolai. I write and read all the stories you hear on Nothing Much Happens. Audio engineering is by Bob Wittersheim. We give to a different charity each week and this week we are giving to four Paws International. Their vision is a world where humans treat animals with respect, empathy and understanding. Learn more in our show notes Villagers. We have something very special and very cozy coming your way next week. It's a partnership with a brand who understands the importance of mindfulness and taking care of yourself. I've fallen in love with their products and use them myself to feel grounded and calm and I can't wait to share what we worked on together. Stay tuned to our social channels and right here on all of our shows for the exciting launch of your future favorite soothing thing. Now I have a tried and true method for helping you sleep better tonight and also build consistently better sleep over time. We need to engage your brain just enough. We want it to stay in one place to quit its wandering ways for a bit and the story is the way to do that. Just by listening, we'll shift your brain into its task positive mode and that will make falling asleep easier, probably instant. Be patient if you are new to this. It is a form of brain training and will improve with regular use. I'll tell the story twice and I'll go a little slower the second time through. If you wake later in the night, turn a story on and you'll drop right back off. Our story tonight is called Autumn sun and it's a story about a day at Weathervane Farm treating the animals to autumnal enrichment. It's also about light shifting through orange and red leaves, the pillowy soil of a well tilled garden, the last pumpkins picked from their vines, and the simple joy of watching kids play.
B
If you're listening, you know self care is vital for overall wellness, but it can be hard to prioritize yourself and ask for what you need. If you're a veteran going through a tough time, there are people who want to listen and help with no pressure or judgment. Dial 988 then press one chat at Veterans Crisis Line.net or text 838255 to reach the Veterans Crisis Line.
C
Responders are ready to support you no.
B
Matter what you're going through.
A
Anybody else need a getaway? Something restorative, luxurious and grownups only? Let me tell you about Virgin Voyages award winning vacations at sea. They have an emphasis on luxury with over $1,000 in value included in every sailing and everything they offer from their menus which are created by Michelin star chefs, to their cabins designed by top international firms. It's all award winning, voted World's Best by Travel and Leisure and Conde Nast readers for the second year in a row. Virgin Voyages is exclusively adult. They cater food, entertainment and activities to adult tastes and their sailors love it. Explore the Caribbean this winter on one of their week long Caribbean escapes. Learn more@virginvoyages.com or contact your travel advisor.
C
Now slide down into your sheets, switch off your light and take a moment to feel your whole body relaxing into the bed. The day is done. Whatever you did with it, it was enough. Truly, you did enough today. All is well. Take a slow deep breath in through your nose and sigh from your mouth. Again. Breathe in and release. Good Autumn sun the autumn was lovely and lasting this year. So many trees were still full of bright leaves and many others had only begun to turn. I hoped it would mean we would have a month or more yet to enjoy it when the skies were so blue it felt like Mother Nature was clearing away the clouds to let the sun shine brightly on the leaves, reminding us to look and to marvel. I certainly did. The way the sun filtered through the branches, it reminded me of the sparkle of light on a lake on a clear day. It dazzled me, and I looked to be dazzled at least once a day with all this sunlight. Even the days that started off chilly warmed in the afternoon, and when I was working out in the barn or in the meadow, I was often down to my T shirt and overalls after lunch. The animals were enjoying this fall as much, if not more, than I was. The ducks and geese splashed and floated in the pond all day or slept in rows on the grassy banks. Did you know ducks can snore? I sure knew it. The cows we had a small herd of rescues now sunbathed and chewed the golden days away, watching the goats in the next paddock over as they jumped off the donated kids playground equipment and occasionally got their heads stuck in bales of hay or fence posts. The goats were voted most likely to cause trouble when no one is looking, though they still caused plenty when we were we also had a few pigs, a stable full of the sweetest donkeys you've ever met, and a few odds and ends, a lone llama, two emus who gave the goats a run for their money, sometimes literally a miniature horse, barn cats, three turkeys, and slightly more dogs than strictly made sense. But everyone got food and fresh water, saw the doctor regularly, had clean stalls or beds to settle in at night, and got a lot of love and affection. We'd not set out to be an animal sanctuary. It had sort of crept up on us, but we wouldn't have it any other way. We had a small army of volunteers who helped us care for the critter crew every day, and they were as much our family now as the animals were. In fact, some came here for Thanksgiving. We would add all the leaves to the dining room table and have a big potluck and share some special treats with the animals. Today I was preparing some of those treats in fact. Or picking them, rather. I'd grown a giant pumpkin patch on the far side of the barn behind the farmhouse, and we still had a few dozen sitting on their vines. I took my trusty wheelbarrow and rolled it through the dry grass. Gosh, it smelled so good out today, that sweet hay scent of the grass at the end of its life, the leaves baking in the sun. I filled my lungs with it as I turned toward the patch and parked my barrow by the edge of the garden. It is a specific sense memory that I have that kicks in each time I step onto the well tilled soil of walking through my grandfather's garden as a child. His garden soil was almost pillowy, and each step held a moment of sinking and a moment of bounce as my foot lifted for the next. I smiled, proud to have inherited his green thumb and soil aeration skills. I took some snippers from the roomy chest pocket on my overalls and began to snip away pumpkins from their prickly stems. I balanced them as best as I could in the wagon, the biggest on the bottom and the smaller ones on the top, till it was about as full as I thought I could manage on the uneven ground. As I wheeled it back across the barnyard toward the goat's play area, I noticed the shadow the weather vane made on the bare earth. There was almost no wind today, so it was still, and the shape of the crane and arrows that sat up on the roof ridge was repeated in a slight blur at my feet. One of our dogs was stretched out in the shadow. He was a husky, and I could tell he was eager for the first snow to come, for colder days to set in. Frigo was his name, and he was the kind of dog that would lay on the last patch of ice in the yard as spring came on. By now he'd had enough of the warm weather and was taking refuge in this one shady spot in the open yard. I stopped to give him a pat and promise him that the winter weather would come soon. Like most huskies, he liked to talk, and even more to talk back, so he had a few things to say about that. Oh, Frigo, I said with sympathy as I reached for the handles of the barrow and started off again. His whiny howls were setting off George the donkey, who brayed back from his yard. Oh, please, I chuckled invitingly. Let's all express ourselves. Where's the rooster, sonny? I spotted him packing around the side of the coop. He was an older gentleman who I think could barely see, but he knew his name and let out a squeaky crow. Need some oil on those gears, my friend, I mumbled as I maneuvered my load of pumpkins around to the gate of the goat's yard. I needed to get in without all of them getting out, so I picked up one of the smaller pumpkins and held it up to get their attention. They watched me, several of them still chewing on hay or grass, and I called out to them about the many virtues of pumpkins, how delicious they were, how fun they were to step on and head butt. I did a couple fake out throws, pretending to toss it into one corner or another, and they did not react like the dogs who would have been running back and forth trying to find the disappearing pumpkins. The goats just watched me and I started to lose confidence that my plan was going to work. Here goes nothing, I mumbled as I tossed the gourd for real now as far out to the back of their yard as I could manage, it somehow landed on top of one of their play structures. They watched it wobble at the top edge of a slide, turning their heads as if looking first with one eye and then with the other. Finally, it toppled and slid squeakily down the slant and as it hit the ground below, lovely and overripe as it was, it broke open. The goats lost their minds at this. They ran over some of the younger ones, ran through the seeds and pumpkin flesh. Others climbed up to slide down over it. It was my cue to open their gate and rush in with the rest, quickly closing it behind me. I started tossing the pumpkins in all different directions. Some cracked as they came down and others bounced, and I knew the kids would be playing all afternoon with these new toys. I backed out as I'd come in, careful not to step on a passing cat or trip over the llama asleep in the sun. My life was a little silly here on Weathervane Farm, but I loved it and I think they all did too. Autumn sun the autumn was lovely and lasting this year. So many trees were still full of bright leaves and many others had only begun to turn. I hoped it would mean we would have a month or more yet to enjoy it when the skies were so blue it felt like Mother Nature was clearing away the clouds to let the sun shine brightly on the leaves, reminding us to look and to marvel. I certainly did. The way the sun filtered through the branches reminded me of the sparkle of light on a lake on a clear day. It dazzled me, and I looked to be dazzled at least once a day with all this sunlight Even the days that started off chilly warmed in the afternoon, and when I was working out in the barn or in the meadow, I was often down to my T shirt and overalls after lunch. The animals were enjoying this fall as much, if not more, than I was. The ducks and geese splashed and floated in the pond all day or slept in rows on the grassy banks. Did you know ducks can snore? Phew, I sure knew it. The cows. We had a small herd of rescues now sunbathed and chewed the golden days away, watching the goats in the next paddock over as they jumped off the donated kids playground equipment and occasionally got their heads stuck in bales of hay or fence posts. They were voted most likely to cause trouble when no one is looking, though they also caused plenty when we were we also had a few pigs, a stable full of the sweetest donkeys you've ever met, and a few odds and ends, a lone llama, two emus who gave the goats a run for their money, sometimes literally a miniature horse barn cats, three turkeys, and slightly more dogs than strictly made sense. But everyone got food and fresh water, saw the doctor regularly had clean stalls or beds to settle in at night, and a lot of love and affection. We'd not set out to be an animal sanctuary. It had sort of crept up on us, but we wouldn't have it any other way. We had a small army of volunteers who helped us care for the critter crew every day, and they were as much our family now as the animals were. In fact, some came here for Thanksgiving. We would add all the leaves to the dining room table and have a big potluck and share some special treats with the animals. Today I was preparing some of those treats, in fact, or picking them rather. I'd grown a giant pumpkin patch on the far side of the barn behind the farmhouse, and we still had a few dozen sitting on their vines. I took my trusty wheelbarrow, unrolled it through the dry grass. Gosh, it smelled so good out today. The sweet hay scent of the grass at the end of its life, the leaves baking in the sun. I filled my lungs with it as I turned toward the patch, parked my barrow by the edge of the garden. It is a specific sense memory I have that still kicks in each time I step onto the well tilled soil of walking through my grandfather's garden. As a child, his garden's soil was almost pillowy, and each step held a moment of sinking and a moment of bounce as my foot lifted for the next. I smiled, proud to have inherited his green thumb and soil aeration skills. I took some snippers from the roomy chest pocket on my overalls and began to snip away pumpkins from their prickly stems. I balanced them as best I could in the wagon, the biggest on the bottom and the smaller ones on the top, till it was about as full as I thought I could manage on the uneven ground. As I wheeled it back across the barnyard toward the goats play area, I noticed the shadow the weather vane made on the bare earth. There was almost no wind today, so it was still, and the shape of the crane and arrows that sat up on the roof ridge was repeated in a slight blur at my feet. One of our dogs was stretched out in the shadow. He was a husky, and I could tell he was eager for the first snow to come, for colder days to set in. Free Go was his name, and he was the kind of dog that would lay on the last patch of ice in the yard as spring came on. By now he'd had enough of the warm weather and was taking refuge in this one shady spot in the open yard. I stopped to give him a pat and promise him that the winter would come soon. Like most huskies, he liked to talk and even more to talk back, so he had a few things to say about that. Oh, Frigo, I said with sympathy as I reached for the handles of the wheelbarrow and started off again. His whiny howls were setting off George the Donkey, who brayed back from his yard. Oh please, I chuckled invitingly. Let's all express ourselves. Where's the rooster, sonny? I spotted him pecking around the side of the coop. He was an older gentleman who I think could barely see, but he knew his name and let out a squeaky crowd. Need some oil on those gears, my friend, I mumbled as I maneuvered my load of pumpkins around to the gate of the goat's yard. I needed to get in without all of them getting out, so I picked up another one of the smaller pumpkins and held it up to get their attention. They watched me, several of them still chewing on hay and grass, and I called out to them about the many virtues of pumpkins, how delicious they were, how fun they were to step on and headbutt. I did a couple fake out throws, pretending to toss it into one corner or another, and they did not react like the dogs would have, who would have been running back and forth trying to find disappearing pumpkins. The goats just watched me and I started to lose confidence that my plan was going to work. Here goes nothing, I mumbled as I tossed the gourd for real now, as far out to the back of their yard as I could manage, it somehow landed on the top of one of their play structures. They watched it wobble at the edge of a slide, turning their heads as if looking first with one eye, then with the other. Finally it toppled and slid squeakily down the slant, and as it hit the ground, lovely and overripe as it was, it broke open. The goats lost their minds at this. They ran over some of the younger ones ran through the seeds in pumpkin flesh. Others climbed up to slide down over it. It was my cue to open their gate and rush in with the rest. Quickly closing it behind me. I started tossing the pumpkins in all different directions. Some cracked as they came down and others bounced, and I knew the kids would be playing all afternoon with these new toys. I backed out as I'd come in, careful not to step on a passing cat or trip over the llama asleep in the sun. My life was a little silly here on Weathervane Farm, but I loved it, and I think they all did, too. Sweet dreams.
Podcast Summary: "Nothing Much Happens: Bedtime Stories to Help You Sleep"
Episode Title: Autumn Sun
Host/Author: iHeartPodcasts
Release Date: November 4, 2024
"Nothing Much Happens: Bedtime Stories to Help You Sleep" is a tranquil podcast series hosted by Yoga and meditation teacher Kathryn Nicolai. Designed to be a soft landing spot for the mind, the podcast offers soothing narratives intended to calm racing thoughts and facilitate peaceful sleep. Each story is narrated twice, with the second reading delivered at a slower pace to enhance relaxation and aid in the transition to sleep.
In the episode titled "Autumn Sun," Kathryn Nicolai transports listeners to the serene environment of Weathervane Farm during the vibrant autumn season. The story captures the essence of farm life amidst the changing colors and the harmonious interactions between humans and animals. Through vivid descriptions and gentle narration, the episode paints a picture of tranquility and simple joys that embody the spirit of autumn.
1. _The Beauty of Autumn:_
The narrative vividly describes the transformation of the farm landscape as autumn progresses. Trees display a stunning palette of orange and red leaves, and the weather shifts to accommodate the crispness of the season. Kathryn reflects on the prolonged beauty of autumn, hoping for extended days to relish the scenic views:
"The autumn was lovely and lasting this year. So many trees were still full of bright leaves and many others had only begun to turn. I hoped it would mean we would have a month or more yet to enjoy it when the skies were so blue it felt like Mother Nature was clearing away the clouds to let the sun shine brightly on the leaves, reminding us to look and to marvel."
— Kathryn Nicolai [02:50]
2. _Harmony with Animals:_
Weathervane Farm is portrayed as a haven for various animals, each contributing to the farm's lively yet peaceful atmosphere. From ducks and geese to goats and donkeys, the animals coexist harmoniously, enjoying the seasonal changes alongside the humans:
"The cows, we had a small herd of rescues now sunbathed and chewed the golden days away, watching the goats in the next paddock over as they jumped off the donated kids' playground equipment and occasionally got their heads stuck in bales of hay or fence posts."
— Kathryn Nicolai [04:10]
3. _Community and Volunteerism:_
The farm thrives not only due to the dedication of its owners but also thanks to a dedicated group of volunteers. These individuals become an integral part of the farm's extended family, contributing to the care and well-being of the animals. The sense of community is further emphasized during special occasions like Thanksgiving:
"We'd add all the leaves to the dining room table and have a big potluck and share some special treats with the animals."
— Kathryn Nicolai [06:00]
1. _Kathryn Nicolai (Narrator/Owner):_
Kathryn serves as both the narrator and the protagonist of the story, providing an intimate glimpse into daily farm life. Her reflections and interactions with the animals highlight her deep connection to the farm and her commitment to creating a nurturing environment.
2. _Frigo the Husky:_
Frigo is portrayed as a talkative and affectionate dog eager for the arrival of winter. His interactions add a touch of humor and warmth to the narrative:
"Oh, Frigo," I said with sympathy as I reached for the handles of the wheelbarrow and started off again. His whiny howls were setting off George the Donkey, who brayed back from his yard."
— Kathryn Nicolai [05:00]
3. _George the Donkey and Other Animals:_
George the Donkey engages in playful banter with Frigo, while other animals like the goats, llama, and emus contribute to the farm's lively ambiance. The animals' personalities are vividly brought to life, showcasing their unique behaviors and interactions.
Kathryn on the Beauty of Autumn:
"The way the sun filtered through the branches reminded me of the sparkle of light on a lake on a clear day. It dazzled me, and I looked to be dazzled at least once a day with all this sunlight."
— Kathryn Nicolai [03:15]
Kathryn on Farm Life:
"My life was a little silly here on Weathervane Farm, but I loved it, and I think they all did, too."
— Kathryn Nicolai [07:00]
Kathryn Preparing Pumpkins:
"I took my trusty wheelbarrow and rolled it through the dry grass. Gosh, it smelled so good out today—the sweet hay scent of the grass at the end of its life, the leaves baking in the sun."
— Kathryn Nicolai [04:50]
Kathryn's Reflection on Volunteers:
"We had a small army of volunteers who helped us care for the critter crew every day, and they were as much our family now as the animals were."
— Kathryn Nicolai [05:30]
Kathryn on Autumn Activities:
"I started tossing the pumpkins in all different directions. Some cracked as they came down and others bounced, and I knew the kids would be playing all afternoon with these new toys."
— Kathryn Nicolai [06:45]
"Autumn Sun" is a heartfelt story that encapsulates the serene and fulfilling life on Weathervane Farm during the autumn season. Through Kathryn Nicolai's soothing narration, listeners are invited to experience the beauty of nature, the joy of caring for animals, and the warmth of a supportive community. The repetition of the story, delivered at a slower pace the second time, serves its purpose of guiding listeners into a state of relaxation and readiness for sleep. This episode exemplifies the podcast's mission to provide a calm and comfy mental space, making it an ideal listen for anyone seeking peaceful bedtime storytelling.
Additional Notes:
Charitable Contributions: Each episode of "Nothing Much Happens" supports a different charity. In this episode, the featured charity is Four Paws International, which envisions a world where humans treat animals with respect, empathy, and understanding.
Upcoming Collaborations: Kathryn hints at an exciting partnership with a mindfulness-focused brand, promising listeners a new, soothing product launch in future episodes.
Connect with the Podcast:
For more information, visit the show's link or follow their social channels for updates on new episodes and collaborations.