Sleep story · sea, simple
Sleep story: a caravan by the sea, on a day that started badly — for jet lag
Thin walls, wind outside, and the sound of shingle about fifty metres away.
Reading it yourself. Back to the audio version.
The curtains are thin, and the moon makes a pale rectangle on the floor. A clock on the wall ticks with a slight rattle on every second. There is a torch by the door in case you need to walk to the toilets in the night.
There is a gas ring, a kettle, and two cups, one of which is a different pattern. You can hear the shingle moving as the waves pull back. The bed folds out of the seating area and takes up most of the floor.
Let the space between your eyebrows smooth out. Feel one shoulder go heavy, then the other.
Feel your heartbeat somewhere far away. Let the back of your neck lengthen out.
The sea is about fifty metres away, over a bank of shingle. Everything you need is within two metres of where you are lying.
Let the mattress take all of it. Feel the top of your head relax into the pillow.
If your body wants to move, let it move, then come back. If you've lost track of where we were, you haven't lost anything important.
Let your shoulder blades spread out and drop. Let your lower back sink down into the mattress.
Let it all get further away. Let the dark be ordinary.
The words can start to blur now. Let the next part go past without you. Follow the breath out, and let the next one arrive by itself.
A day that started badly does not have to stay that way.
I will stop here. The quiet will carry on without the words.