Pablo and the Shiny Object

Pablo floats in warm water and sees an old friend waving to him from the shore. In the strange logic of the dream, a simple message reaches him: Look after yourself. Take care of yourself. Go well. A short, gentle English listening story for calm listening and simple English practice. Continue listening to Pablo: https://eattmag.com/free-podcasts-download/

Explore all episodes and download from the full library: https://eattmag.com/free-podcasts-download/ When Pablo arrived home, he placed the bowl carefully on the table. Then he found his large scrapbook. It had been sitting on a shelf for a long time. Some of the pages were empty. Other pages contained old notes, drawings, lists and ideas that he had almost forgotten. He carried the scrapbook to the table and sat down beside the bowl. For a while, he did nothing. He looked at the empty page. Then he looked up at the bowl. He picked up a pen and wrote: Questions for a Long Walk Underneath it, he wrote another question: What are the five most important questions I could ask myself? Pablo sounded the bowl. [Singing bowl chimes] He listened. Then he began to write. Where have I come from? Not only the places he had lived or visited, but the experiences that had shaped him. Where am I now? What was happening in his life at this moment? What was working? What was difficult? What was he avoiding? What am I carrying that I no longer need? Old plans. Old worries. Other people's expectations. Things that had never been useful, or things that had once been useful but had now become heavy. What is genuinely valuable to me? Not what should be valuable. Not what looked impressive. But what was actually valuable. Where do I want to go next? Not where other people thought he should go. Where did he want to go? Pablo placed the pen beside the scrapbook. He read the five questions again. They were simple questions. But he knew they would not always have simple answers. They were not the only questions he would ask. They were only the beginning. They were the five gates. Beyond each gate, there might be ten more questions. Or twenty more. Perhaps there would eventually be one hundred questions. But he would not need to answer them all today. He picked up the bowl and sounded it once more. The sound filled the room.

Explore all episodes and download from the full library: https://eattmag.com/free-podcasts-download/ The story stayed in Pablo's mind as he walked.   It made him think about reviewing things.   Not judging everything.   Not deciding that everything he had done was right or wrong.   Just looking.   Looking carefully at where he had been, where he was now and where he might be going.   He wondered what would happen if he made a list of questions.   Questions about his life.   Questions about his time.   Questions about what he valued and why he valued it.   But what would the questions be?   And how would he answer them?   Perhaps he could take a long walk along the beach.   He could carry his large scrapbook under his arm.   When he found a quiet place, he could sit on a stone or an old piece of wood and write.   Or he could walk beside the river where it flowed into the sea.   He could find a place beneath the trees, open the book and begin.   But Pablo laughed when he imagined himself carrying a large scrapbook along the beach.   Perhaps a phone would be easier.   He could speak the answers into his phone while he walked.   Some questions might be easier to answer by talking aloud.   Other questions might need to be written down slowly.   This he knew was true.   Perhaps he could do both.   Then Pablo looked at the bowl.   He had another idea.   He could use the sound of the bowl to begin each question.   He would gently sound the bowl.   [Singing bowl sound]   He would listen and then start talking.   For some questions, he would keep talking for as long as the bowl continued to ring.   For other questions, he would write until the sound disappeared.   It could be like a kind of game.   Not a game with winners and losers, but a game that helped him move through different gates.   Gate 1: Where had he come from?   Gate 2: What was he carrying?   Gate 3: Why was he doing the things he did?   He could write without stopping and without correcting every word.   He could let the first answer come out.   Then, when the sound ended, he could pause.   He could walk a little farther.   When he was ready, he could sound the bowl again and move through the next gate.   By the time Pablo left the beach, he had not written any questions.   But he knew how he wanted to answer them.       *]:pointer-events-auto R6Vx5W_threadScrollVars scroll-mb-[calc(var(--scroll-root-safe-area-inset-bottom,0px)+var(--thread-response-height))] scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id= "request-WEB:f8947d78-da0a-463d-91e3-9492b6655a56-51" data-turn-id-container= "request-WEB:f8947d78-da0a-463d-91e3-9492b6655a56-51" data-testid= "conversation-turn-102" data-turn="assistant">

Explore all episodes and download from the full library: https://eattmag.com/free-podcasts-download/ Pablo could not remember every detail of the story. But he remembered the important part. A very famous man travelled to a tiny island, far away, near the bottom of the world. The man had become very important. Very important. In fact, he would eventually become the king of one of the greatest kingdoms on Earth. He could have spent his time anywhere. He could have met presidents, politicians, business leaders and other famous people. But instead, he travelled all that way to visit the family of an old friend. The friend had died many years earlier. About ten years earlier, Pablo thought, from what he remembered of the story. But the famous man had not forgotten his old friend. He travelled to the island to meet his friend's family. He spoke with them. He sat with them. He listened to their stories and shared bread and wine with them. Perhaps they laughed about things the old friend used to do. Perhaps they remembered the way he spoke. They remembered a journey they had taken together, a meal they had shared, or a joke that nobody else understood. Pablo imagined the famous man sitting with the family. For a little while, he was not a king or a great public figure. He was simply an old friend who had come a very long way. Pablo looked down at the bowl in his hands. What was the value of a friendship like that? The friend was no longer alive, but the friendship had not completely disappeared. It was still there in a journey. It was there in the stories. It was there in the decision to travel across the world to sit with his family. Perhaps that was one way to understand value. You could look at how somebody spent their money. But you could also look at how somebody spent their time. Where did they go? Who did they remember? What promises did they keep? What were they still willing to do, even many years later? Pablo stopped walking. He looked back at the long line of his footsteps in the sand. Then he looked ahead. The beach continued out into the distance. He began wondering about the value of his own time. Where had it gone? What had he done with it? And what might he do with the time that he still had ahead of him?  

More Pablo stories: https://eattmag.com/free-podcasts-download/   Pablo was still walking along the beach. The bowl was in his hands. Every now and then, he stopped and looked at it. He turned it over. He ran his fingers around the outside of it, and then around the smooth edge at the top. He wondered about its value. Not its value in money. He did not mean: "How much could I sell this bowl for?" Or: "How much would it cost in a shop?" He was thinking about a different kind of value. Who had made it? How had they made it? How long had it taken them? What tools had they used? And what was the bowl actually made from? He held it up towards the sunlight. There were small marks across its surface. They were not scratches exactly. They looked more like signs that it had been made by hand. Perhaps someone had spent hours making it. Perhaps someone had spent days making it. Perhaps the person who made it had learned how to make bowls from another person. And perhaps that person had learned from someone before them. Pablo liked that idea. He rubbed his hands across the bowl again. Then he wondered what the bowl could do. It could hold something, of course. It could sit on a table. It could be carried. But it could also make a sound. Pablo gently touched the side of the bowl. The sound was quiet at first. Then it opened. It seemed to move out across the beach, towards the waves, before slowly disappearing into the wind. Pablo listened until he could no longer hear it. What was the value of a sound like that? The sound only lasted for a few seconds. But perhaps those few seconds could change the way someone felt. Perhaps value was not always about how long something lasted. Perhaps value was about what happened while it was there. As Pablo continued walking, the bowl reminded him of a story he had once read. It was a story about a very famous man, an old friend, and a journey to a tiny island near the bottom of the world. And Pablo began trying to remember it. Questions to think about What words in the story describe the bowl? What did Pablo wonder about when he looked at the bowl? Have you ever held something that felt valuable, even though it was not worth much money? What sound helps you to stop, listen and feel calm?

Find more Pablo stories and listening episodes here: https://eattmag.com/ Pablo was walking slowly along the beach. The tide had gone out and the sand was soft under his feet. He had seen something sticking out of the sand. At first, he thought it was just a shell. He bent down gently and cleared the sand away with his hands. A small bowl appeared. It was old-looking and round, and quiet, in a way. Pablo did not pick it up straight away. He just looked at it for a moment. He wondered who had left it there. He wondered how long it had been waiting. Then he placed both hands around the bowl and slowly lifted it out of the sand. As he lifted it, Pablo stopped again. There was something underneath—a small piece of string lying in the sand. Pablo gently pulled the string. The string was attached to a small bag. He brushed the sand away from the bag and opened it carefully. Inside the bag was a little cushion for the bowl to sit on, and beside it was a small wooden striker. Pablo flattened out the sand with his hand and placed the cushion on it. He then placed the bowl on top. He held the little striker in his hand. For a moment, he said nothing. The beach was quiet. The wind moved softly. Pablo touched the striker to the inside of the bowl. (The gentle sound of the bowl ringing floats up into the air) The gentle sound floated up into the air. Pablo was fascinated. He didn't understand anything about the bowl, but he knew one thing: this was not something he had found. It was something he had to listen to. Thinking exercise Pablo found the bowl, but he did not understand it straight away. Think about this question: Have you ever found something, heard something, or noticed something that made you stop and listen more carefully? It could be an object, a sound, a place, or even a quiet moment. Take a little time to think about what it was, and why it stayed with you.

Read, listen, and follow the transcript here: https://eattmag.com/pablo-and-the-shiny-object/

Read, listen, and follow the transcript here: https://eattmag.com/pablo-and-the-story-of-observation/

Read, listen, and follow the transcript here: https://eattmag.com/pablo-learns-to-listen/ A gentle English listening episode about Pablo slowing down near the ocean and learning to listen carefully. In this episode, Pablo listens to the waves, the wind, and the small changes around him. This story helps English learners practise calm listening, observation, and simple reflective language. Full transcript and reading notes are available on the website.

In this gentle English listening episode, Pablo stands on the beach and tries to remember something from a dream. He writes in the sand near the waves and slowly remembers the feeling behind the word. This episode is designed for calm listening, simple English practice, and story-based learning. Listen and read here: https://eattmag.com/pablo-and-the-word-in-the-sand/