Bedtimes Stories

A Thousand Grandparents & Bed Time Stories

The Delight Makers began with a project called A Thousand Grandparents & Bedtime Stories. It is a gift of love for the world’s children; a treasure trove of wisdom, healing, inspiration, joy and a wealth beyond material accumulation.

We began with the question…

“What gift would we give to children who are orphaned or who have very little access to emotional and spiritual nurturing through whatever circumstances, whether orphaned through physical loss, emotional deprivation or cultural abandonment?”

The answer: “A Thousand Grandparents; all different, some intense, some playful and all with different experience and wisdom to share. A thousand beautiful awakened souls sharing the gift of presence, truth and intimacy of spirit.”

This is a film based project, a heritage collection of wisdom, inspiration, delight and love freely accessible by all.  The project starts by asking storyteller’s the question,

“If you had one story to tell, as a gift of consciousness, a story that could change a child’s life, open their minds and hearts, help them to find their inner light, what would it be?”

Or, “If you could go back to the younger you and tell that younger you one story of inspiration or wisdom, what would it be?”

The vision for the project is that it will be multi-cultural with stories translated across cultures and languages. CLICK HERE to see some of the stories from our pilot …

The project is set to provide a platform where people of every nation, culture, gender, age, belief system and walk of life are joining together to serve one beautiful cause; Wisdom and Love Without Borders.

John Lennon’s Sgt Peppers Gypsy Showman’s Caravan

We completed our research and development/pilot phase of the project with the first 40 test stories recorded. And this is where our journey took a diversion, as the spectacular psychedelic Sgt Peppers Gypsy Showman’s Caravan crossed out path. We had to pause the Bedtime Stories project in order to welcome in and develop the Peacing Together project. What we hadn’t known at the outset was that the caravan’s journey would take us back to the childhood dreams and sanctuary of the world’s greatest icons and greatest dreamers. One of John’s favourite childhood stories was Wind in the Willows. To us it was a magical discovery and insight to the caravan. John had said in an interview that he would have liked to, in later life, write stories for children. Sadly that dream was taken from him, but his caravan lives on and once the restoration is complete we hope that it will become the totem for the dream of delighting young souls.

The first phase of the project is to make the stories freely available on the internet as well as through traditional media channels.

Our longer range vision is to create mobile cinema, and street cinema packs to take to impoverished areas, orphanages, refugee camps. We want to reach a grand scale and provide a robust web service, providing stories in multiple languages. Once fully developed the maintenance of that system would be relatively low, easily managed by the Foundation, and freely available to all.

The beauty of this project is that we can develop flexibly in increments, building into the global service, and yet still bringing benefit to children globally, through the internet, from the very start.

Benefits of the Project

• Provide a united platform for inspired voices to reach out to future generations.
• Provide wisdom through fun.
• Develop and encourage a sense of universal wonder.
• Encourage a love of the natural world and honouring of all beings.
• Break down barriers between different communities by showing and sharing wisdom from all cultures.
• Encourage an interest in the voices of elders and providing a bridge between the generations.
• Provide a safe and trusted place to seek wisdom for those who do not currently have such blessings.
• Deliver tools for self realisation, empowerment and response-ability.
• Bring joy!

Future Phases

• Encouraging children to bring their grandparents and elders into the project.
• Letting the children share their own wisdom with each other.
• Providing a platform for relatives to reach out to their loved ones through storytelling.
• Specialist Libraries (such as Heritage, Spirituality, Local History, Traditional Arts).

The Stories

Our goal is to make enlightenment a pleasure, crossing over boundaries and prejudices through engagement in fun. We use fun to create unity, fun to heal and fun to discover the magic within self and the universe.

Following on from the pilot we have settled on the approach whereby we invite the storyteller to share their story on film, using whatever style suits them and the story that they wish to share. This is then accompanied by an interview where storyteller is invited to speak about their life, particularly their childhood and why they have they have chosen their particular story. The interview adds a greater depth to the story and sense of richness and connection to the storyteller, which in turn also facilitates a greater level of parental connection to the project.

The nature of the stories are such that they are open and do not impose belief, but instead invite self enquiry and self discovery, opening the mind and heart and creating curiosity, excitement, peace and wonder. The topics envisaged are as follows, and we are open to more ideas:

• The values of the heart
• Imagination & creativity
• The power and magic of thought and words
• Nature, respect for nature, magic of nature, love of the planet
• Unity, judgement, assumption, prejudice
• Forgiveness & peace
• Self Inquiry & self realisation
• Freedom & free will
• Empowerment & self belief
• The power of laughter, smiles, joy and celebration

The Storytellers

The storytellers who have come forward to be a part of this project are all beacons for what is possible when humanity chooses the path of the heart and awakened consciousness.

They come from diverse backgrounds; some will be familiar, some maybe famous and others will be unknown local or unsung heroes. They include well known authors and teachers of enlightenment, artists, actors, indigenous leaders, musicians and environmentalists.

They have all contributed to this project to give the gift of their life experience, to share their wisdom and adventures with tales that will delight, empower and inspire. For a preview of some of the storytellers please CLICK HERE.

Invitation

This is a call for stories of love, truth, inspiration and awakening to be told, by those with the courage to take down the mask and speak from the truth of their deepest being, their highest intelligence and the greatness of their spirit.

We are reaching out to great wisdom keepers, spiritual warriors, adventurers, storytellers and beacons of awakened living. All walks of life and cultures are welcome. The intention is key, to give as a gift of love, a better world story, filled with possibility, vision and empowerment.

If this project resonates with you and you would like to take part as a storyteller, fund raiser, sponsor, ambassador or have other skills that you might be able to volunteer then please contact us using the form below.

With Love

Samantha