The Old Lantern by the River

A Bedtime Story: Told by Jack Hopkins...and Inspired by Dr. Milton Erickson

You know…there was once a young man… or maybe it was a woman… it doesn’t really matter… who used to walk by the river each evening when the sky had that…soft…violet color that only happens…when the day decides…it’s done.

And the thing about that river was…it didn’t hurry….it didn’t rush…it didn’t even seem to know the word “deadline”…it just… flowed.

And you might notice…how…when a river flows that way…something in you begins to remember…what it’s like to let go… of trying so hard.

Now… there was a little wooden bridge there… not much more than planks and nails… and every night…that person would cross it…listening to the creak of the wood underfoot…one creak…then another… like the rhythm of breathing… or maybe…the rhythm of drifting… between waking…and dreaming…

…and on the other side of the bridge…there stood an old lantern…it hadn’t been lit for years…but it still stood tall…with bits of rust on its frame….and glass…that caught the moonlight…just right…

…and sometimes…when the moon was low and soft…that lantern would glow…not from any flame…but from memory…because old things… have a way of remembering what they were made for…

…and maybe…just maybe…people do too…

…the young man…or woman…or whoever they were…used to rest there…on a smooth… flat stone…and you might imagine…that stone now… cool beneath you… solid… supporting you without asking for anything in return…

…and as they sat…they would notice small things…
…the way the breeze brushed the grass…
…the slow blink of a firefly somewhere nearby…
…the faint scent of water and pine and distant soil…

…and all those little things… together… became something larger…something peaceful… something…like sleep…

…because it’s interesting…isn’t it…how sometimes…we go looking for rest…and can’t find it…and then one evening…when we’re not even trying…rest finds us…

…now…I don’t know when you’ll notice…that gentle heaviness in the eyelids…or that deep…comfortable feeling spreading…through your body….like a warm current of calm… but I know it happens naturally…when you let your mind wander…just a little farther downstream…

…and as the moonlight flickers…on the surface of that quiet water…you might realize that thoughts…like ripples…fade on their own…when you stop stirring the surface…

…and somewhere…perhaps deeper inside than you usually look, something understands…
…you’ve done enough today…
…you’ve thought enough…
…you’ve been enough…

…and that understanding feels good…doesn’t it?

…soon…the person by the river stands… stretches slowly… and starts walking back across the bridge…
…each step slower than the one before…
…each creak softer…
…each breath deeper…

…and by the time….they reach…the other side…the lantern’s glow… fades back…into the stars…
…the air settles…
…the night folds itself gently…around…everything that matters…

…and maybe…tonight…as your body remembers what deep…effortless rest feels like… you’ll find…that same quiet lantern…glowing softly…somewhere inside… not because it needs to…but because it can…

…and you don’t have to do anything…except let it…
…because sleep comes…the way rivers flow…naturally…easily…quietly…when you stop trying to push the current….

…so in a few moments…or maybe right now…
…you can let yourself drift…
…into that comfortable…kind of nothing…
…where dreams do…all the work…for you…

…and as you do…just remember…
…the river keeps flowing…
…the world keeps turning…
…and everything…that needs rest… finds it…

Good night.

-Jack