Stargazing On A Lake: Original Long Bedtime Story

In this long sleep story, you live in a cabin with a wall aquarium. As rain falls outside, you read by the fire before sleeping to the sound of rain and a distant storm. You dream of swimming underwater, smaller than a seahorse, and ride one to a cave with a blue lava lake. Discovering a strange beach and ice island, a penguin gives you a message. Waking to the sound of your cat scratching at the bedroom door, you visit a canal, houseboat, and lake, observing a UFO in the night sky before heading home to bed.

Transcript

Just take a moment to allow your eyes to close and allow yourself to begin to relax and as you begin to gently drift asleep I'm just going to tell this sleep meditation in the background and while I tell this sleep meditation I don't know whether you'll drift deeper to the sound of my voice or whether it'll be to the spaces between my words and as you begin to comfortably drift asleep you can have a sense of the sound of a bubbling aquarium and this aquarium fills the whole wall of a building and attached to the rest of that building looks very much like a comfortable log cabin and that aquarium that large wall extends way back but because the inside of that aquarium area is blue it's hard to tell exactly how far back it goes as you look in on it but as you look in on that aquarium you can hear the bubbling of those bubbles rising up around the sides of the aquarium circulating some of that water you can see the gentle waving movement of the plants in that aquarium stretching up from the base up towards the surface of that water you can see some rays gently swimming and gliding their way through the water and smaller fish and off nearer to the back of that aquarium you can see a turtle and as you stand there gazing into that aquarium in that cabin you can hear the crackling fire behind you and you can feel the comfortable warmth of being in that cabin the almost hypnotic sound of the water in the aquarium and the almost hypnotic vision of the slow moving of the fish of the rays of that turtle and while watching almost being hypnotized by the aquarium noticing the way the light changes and shimmers through the water you can hear the sound of rain outside the cabin and as that rain gets stronger so you begin to hear it on the roof of the cabin and you start to wonder what the experience would be for those creatures in that aquarium because in the aquarium the top of it is open to the elements and so when you look up in that aquarium you can see the circular patterns appearing from each raindrop that strikes the surface you can see the way the waves undulate and the interactions between the undulating waves and the circular waves of the raindrops and you wonder whether there's any sound of that for those in the water whether the rain hitting the water makes an audible sound in the same way that the rain hitting the roof makes a sound that you're aware of because as you gaze into that aquarium you have this sense that it's peaceful serene and quiet that the rain is barely moving the water itself just rippling up the surface and you leave that aquarium and head over and sit in a comfortable seat by the fire and you can still see the aquarium over there on that side of the room and you find a book beside you you turn to a bookmarked page and you begin to read where you left off the night before and as you read you begin to find yourself more absorbed in the story and you become less aware of your surroundings and you lose all track of time and then after a while you reach the end of a chapter and you have this feeling like it's time to rest it's time to go to bed so you put your bookmark in place you close that book you place that back down by the chair you can see as you stand up and look out of the window that it's now getting dark outside you can see looking into the aquarium that the lights in that aquarium have turned on just gently illuminating the water with just a low glow just enough so you can notice the movement of the creatures in that aquarium and you can still hear that rain on the roof and you head off to bed and as you relax down in bed close your eyes and begin to comfortably drift asleep you can hear the rain on the window to the bedroom and then you start to hear this distant rumble of thunder just the most calming distant rumble and occasionally through your closed eyelids you have this sense of perhaps a flash of lightning that somehow illuminated into the room and then after many many seconds you hear that low extended distant rumble of thunder a slightly bouncy rumble as the sound starts off low and seems to be punctuated by a few slightly larger but still distant and low rumbles almost like notes within some background noise and then ending with some even longer lower distant rumbles and as you drift deeper and deeper asleep you never notice that thunderstorm getting any closer even if it did you fall asleep long before then just drifting asleep to that sound of the thunder the sound of the rain on the window the moments when that rain calms right down to just a smattering of raindrops then other moments where that rain increases and seems quite strong almost like it's been blown straight out the window and you drift deeper and fall comfortably and relax to sleep and as you sleep and begin to dream you start to dream about being underwater you notice that you're underwater in the sea and you can hear the distant sound of whales of dolphins and in the distance you can just make out some silhouetted shapes of two humpback whales seemingly just floating there moving slowly through the water so gracefully and you continue to swim underwater listening to the sounds having that feeling almost like being underwater is making time slow right down and as you have the sense of being underwater so you start diving down deeper and deeper until eventually you realize as you're approaching the bottom that you seem so small compared to everything around you and this friendly seahorse comes over to you and you realize that you're only half the size of the seahorse and so you climb onto the back of that seahorse and you ride that seahorse as it guides you and weaves in and out of the different rocks weaves in and out of the seaweed you can feel that water rushing past your face as you hold on to that seahorse and enjoy the ride and after a while the seahorse starts to descend and as it descends so you notice how pure and white the sand looks down here and how all the seaweed seems to be behind you and that whiteness of the sand seems to stretch out in front of you in all directions and the only thing you can see down here is half a coconut and that half a coconut just seems to be resting on the seafloor and seems to be moving ever so slightly you have this sense that maybe as the sea rolls back and forth overhead perhaps the water is moving that coconut and the seahorse takes you closer and closer but when you get really close you see some tentacles coming out from under the coconut and then realize that it's an octopus under there and that the octopus is trying to safely find its way along this open stretch of ocean floor and on the back of the seahorse you watch as that octopus continues to find its way to its destination curious how it knows where it's going because in every direction that you look all you can see is white until it fades into the blueness of the ocean and you notice the way that the sunlight dapples and moves across this white sand with the movement of the waves overhead and see that the way the octopus is moving that coconut seems to be in time with the movement of that dappled light passing across the sand as if it's trying to make itself look like it's just moving gently with the waves overhead and you begin to recognize how intelligent that octopus is and as the seahorse continues to head through the sea with you on its back riding it further and further away from the seaweed and the rocks you notice the parrotfish seeming just to swim on its own and it comes over inquisitively seems to come alongside you and with its eye looking over at you seems to be studying you and trying to work out who you are this strange little creature on the back of that seahorse and then after a while of it looking at you swimming around and the seahorse it swims off and begins to disappear off into the darkness the blueness of the ocean and now you're traveling far enough that as you look up you can see those humpback whales overhead just hovering there gently moving in the water and you see off in front of you what looks like a small area of rocks almost like an oasis in all this smooth landscape and the seahorse seems to be heading towards those rocks and as it arrives at the rocks it heads between the gaps in of those rocks into what's like a small little cave and then it seems to dive down deeper into the darkness between these rocks before popping itself up into what seems to be a slightly illuminated area and then through the movement of its neck it communicates to you that here is where you dismount and so you dismount from the seahorse you swim to the shore you swim upwards and realize that you break the surface and you pull yourself up onto the land and discover yourself in a cave and you're still really small and this cave seems to be proportionate to your size and you start to walk wondering what is illuminating this cave and as you walk you can hear your footsteps echoing you can feel a warmth in this cave and as you feel that warmth you begin to dry off you can notice the water evaporating from your clothes and then you discover a lake of blue lava and that blue lava looks thick and viscous and is flowing slowly within this cave and seems to have a slight blue over certain points of the lava almost like occasionally some gas bursts through the lava catching light creating areas of the most beautiful blue flame above that glowing blue lava and there's a stone bridge over the lava and you head to that stone bridge you follow that stone bridge over the lava and over to the other side of the cave you continue to walk deeper and deeper into the cave as you walk deeper so the temperature begins to change again you find yourself stood at a door and notice that you feel quite cool stood at this door almost as if there's a coolness given off by the door and as you open that door you see the strangest sight you see what looks like a beach and a little way off from the shore you can see an ice island and on that ice island you can see what looks like a family of penguins just resting there huddled up keeping themselves warm and you walk from that door down towards the seashore feeling those footsteps crunching through snow and icy sand and you can feel the cold and yet something about it feels calming and comfortable as if it's not as cold as you would imagine as if your eyes are telling you that it's going to be really cold and yet your body is telling you that it's fine and you notice at this moment that this gives you the realization that you're in a dream still that you'd been so wrapped up and absorbed in the dream experience that you'd forgotten that you were dreaming it's only now that you're comfortable in a cold environment you realize that you're still resting there in bed drifting and dreaming and you can hear that water just so slowly and gently lapping on the shore almost as if the water is thicker than the water you're used to as if it's so cold that it's almost turning to slush that makes the sound of that water lapping on the shore sound different to what it sounds like when you're on the most beautiful tropical beach and you notice that here the sky seems grayer that there's undefined clouds in the sky then one of those penguins seems to jump off the island and with barely a splash dives into that water then after a few moments springs out the water near the shore landing on the shore and waddling over to you and you crouch down to that penguin and as you do the penguin opens its mouth and a piece of paper falls from its mouth heads down towards your hand and the wind catches that paper slightly so you move your hand to catch the paper before it blows away and you read that paper and you see that the paper seems to have a message on it about the experience you're having but that paper says your mind creates your reality and as you read that the paper starts to become warm in your hands and it gets warmer and warmer then you hear a slight fizzing coming from the paper and you let go and in a flash that paper turns into a flame and vanishes totally burnt up before your eyes and with that you start to hear the sounds of birds and your experience starts to fade away as if somebody's gently turning the lights out on the experience then you become aware of the warmth of your bed the feeling of the blanket over you the feeling of your breathing in and out then you have that feeling of being in a land between wakefulness and sleep where you know that you're lying there in bed but you're so relaxed and in such a pleasant place in your mind you don't yet awaken enough to get out of bed then after a while as the bird sound outside increases and you start to hear a scratching at your bedroom door you know that it's time to get up you get out of bed and get yourself sorted and you head to your bedroom door and sat the other side of your bedroom door is your large orange cat and you pet the cat and head down to the kitchen you make yourself some food and the cat some food and the cat eats its food and then once it's got its food it seems to just walk away from you as if it's had what it came for it's got other things to do and you look out of the window you can see that it's a beautiful day you can see that the rain is evaporating and drying outside creating the most beautiful low mist and you head outside you can breathe in that fresh air noticing how clean that air smells after the rain has been the night before hearing the sounds of the birds the distant sound of rustling leaves of the trees and you head off down a dirt track heading on a walk down through the woods all the way down to a canal you arrive at the canal and as you walk along the canal towards your canal boat you see a mum and daughter riding along on a tandem and they say good morning and they slow down and the daughter gets off and walks alongside with you and starts engaging in conversation with you and the mum is still sitting on the bike pushing with her legs walking that bike along and they walk along talking with you for a little while as they join you on your journey to that houseboat of yours and once you get to the boat they say goodbye and they continue on the path on that bike and you climb on board you open the door at the back of the boat you walk down to this narrow boat and like every time that you board this boat the first thing you do is put the kettle on and the second thing is to sit down on the sofa and just take a moment to relax almost as if every time you board this boat it's an experience like it's the first time the excitement of boarding this boat always feels like the first time boarding it and you just rest there close your eyes you can hear the kettle boiling and you can hear that gentle lapping of the water on the outside of the boat the sounds of birds outside and yet there's a certain stillness and silence to being on here and you find your mind occasionally wandering to the dream that you had had the night before curious about any potential meaning from that dream and after you've made a cup of tea you sit down just looking out of the window from this boat sometimes just coming down to this boat for somewhere quiet to go somewhere you find almost meditative and other times you take it on a journey down the canal through the locks out towards the lake and so after your tea you head back up outside the boat you unmoor the boat you started up and very slowly you begin to steer that boat along the canal arriving at the first lock passing through that lock very slowly arriving at the second lock and a third lock before finally ending up out in the lake and you drop anchor in the lake you set up a chair on the top of the boat and you just rest there with woodland around the outside of the lake hills the sun overhead the sound of the gentle water lapping on the shore napping on the boat the very slight movement of the boat in the water the birds flying overhead and you almost have this sense that just going down the road on a boat can feel so much like a holiday being out here away from the shore in a calm lake and you read some more of your book that you're reading the day before and as the sun is almost about to set you make yourself some food and head back out again and sit and eat your food watching the sun setting watching the stars and moon appear in the sky seeing the milky way arched overhead with no lights around you and no lights on on the boat and as minutes gazing up at the sky turn into hours gazing up at the sky your eyes begin to get used to the darkness you can see the shooting stars as they streak across the sky and you can notice the subtle colors in the sky the twinkling of the stars and you just lie back and rest there staring up at the sky feeling glad that today the sky is so clear where the night before was raining and stormy and you just gaze up and watch that sky for most of the night and as you watch the sky you see the strangest sight you see what looks like an area of stars disappearing and then another area of stars disappearing and while you gaze up into the darkness you notice that it appears as if a shadow is blocking out an area of stars and is moving slowly across the sky and it appears to be moving in your direction and then you hear this almost inaudible almost more of a feeling hum that's so deep it seems to almost reverberate within you that you're unable to work out exactly whether it's a sound or a feeling and as that shadow passes overhead so you have this sense that because your eyes are so adjusted to the darkness and you can see so many stars like you can make out a shape to this object as you make out that it appears to almost be a giant triangle just slowly and quietly moving its way across the sky that it seems to almost stretch from wingtip to windtip it's almost as wide as the lake blocking out vast swathes of the stars overhead while it passes over your head and as it passes over so you stand up to turn around and continue watching you see it heading in the direction of the canal but all you've got for the experience is that an area of stars couldn't be seen that something clearly was blocking those stars you don't know what it was and you know that if you tell anyone that you saw a giant craft pass overhead people would probably think you're talking about an alien spaceship and you don't know whether that's what it is all you know is that it wasn't technically probably in space but you don't know whether it's alien made or man-made all you know is that it was an unidentified flying object and that it seemed to be incredibly quiet and slow moving didn't seem to have any obvious means of propulsion and yet it had passed overhead and if you're asked to describe it you would say that it was probably a triangular shape but you only know that from what you couldn't see rather than from what you could you only know that from the absence of stars while it passed over and inferring the shape it must be for what stars were disappearing and reappearing that you wouldn't be able to say what it was made of or even what color it was it was so dark you couldn't see it against the night sky and you know that it's going to have your mind thinking long and hard trying to work out what it was for years to come and what it might mean to you and for you and after you can no longer see it you just settle back down onto that boat and then as you begin to feel tired you head inside the boat taking your chair inside you settle down for the night inside the boat you read just a little bit more of that book and then you realize that you're near the end of the book so although you're tired and now feeling more tired as you try really hard to stay awake to finish the book you read all the way to the final page you read all the way to the end and then turn the page and the page after the final page of text you see a piece of tissue and then pressed between that piece of tissue and another piece of tissue you see some roses and a little note just saying with love and a cross and you smile at the sight of that knowing what that means to you as you gently close that book put it down beside you settle down and snuggle down and listening to the gentle lapping of the water against the boat you drift and float gently asleep and as the sun rises so you wake yourself up you turn the boat around to make your journey back home to make that journey back to that cabin and that aquarium and you head back through those locks head back along the canal you moor your boat up where you set off from aware that the next time you go out on the boat you're going to have to head down the other direction through a couple of locks to a location you can turn it around if you want to go back back to that lake and you follow that path all the way back to that cabin and back in the cabin you check on the aquarium make sure everything's okay you have the ginger cat head over to you you reach down give them a pet make sure they've got some food you head around the side of the cabin through a door into the visitors center area you go and set everything up you set the main entrance to open and then having had a relaxing few days you know you're back to working to greeting people as they arrive to see the aquarium for you to give them a tour and teach them about the animals and teach them about the ocean you have this idea in your mind of how you'll be able to share with the children about what it's like to perhaps be in the ocean swimming among the fish maybe engaging the children talking to them about riding on the back of seahorses and you spend the day working and some of the people come in and just look around the aquarium others go to the cafe down the corridor and some go to one of the two playgrounds the indoor playground for children it's like an ocean adventure where you get to go into a dark tunnel that represents being deep under the ocean with glow in the dark images around the side of jellyfish of deep sea creatures you get to head down a slide like diving in a submarine going deeper and deeper then coming out into a bull pit which looks like an underwater volcano spraying balls out of the middle that splash down and land in the pit and then upstairs is an adult playground with really steep slides with walls to climb with precarious looking rope ladders and rope bridges and puzzles that allow them to be able to open a door to a secret entrance to a bar just for those adults and in that bar there's a window that looks down over the play area for the children and so the adults that aren't really into having fun in the adult playground if they can solve the puzzle they can go through to the bar and just sit lounge and watch their children play and they don't have to solve any puzzle to get back out again and you just work all day with a smile on your face as parents and children and other visitors arrive enjoy the venue then at the end of the day you check through the venue you make sure everything's been cleaned and tidied you lock up the venue head back through the door to the cabin behind the aquarium relax down in front of the fire having picked the next book that you'll read and after reading some of that book you head off to bed knowing that you'll be working doing the same the next day that you enjoy this job of sharing your passion for the ocean and for nature and you drift and float so peacefully so comfortably asleep