If you're ready for sleep,
Go right ahead.
Just get settled.
Feel all of the wear and tear of a day well lived.
Feel the parts of your mind that are eager to slow down or turn off.
Notice the muscles and joints that are already calling for rest.
Your body advocating for its own care in sleep time.
You might start to let your eyes close,
Your breath stretch out,
Your thoughts wander.
Letting all of the constructed world get a little hazy,
A little indistinct.
Just settle in,
Feel the weight of the world and the gravity of our sweet planet.
Pulling you,
Drawing you down like melting wax,
Pulling you in like a lover,
Resting like a boat on a river.
Let your mind and body drift,
Let yourself go.
Get carried away on the currents of breath,
Filling you up,
Letting you drift off,
Rocking.
Let the darkness descend and the quiet envelop you and become still,
Nothing more,
Nothing less than yourself.
Your body as it is in the time ahead to rest.
If you get hooked by a thought,
Lost in a fantasy or overwhelmed with regret,
Just come back to your body,
Your breath,
The trigger of my voice drawing you back to this moment and this moment and this moment again and alone starting to expand.
People cause us trouble during the day.
They get on our last nerve,
They try our patience,
Sometimes with good intentions.
Sometimes just indifferent to or unaware of our needs.
You could be angry all night but then you'd never sleep.
So maybe what you wanna do is forgive or just divest yourself of the anger and you might've figured out,
Hey,
I do that too.
I hurt people,
I don't mean to but it must happen.
I'm so sorry,
I don't wanna do that again.
You don't have to beat yourself up.
You may not be able to or ready to apologize in public.
You could put a few words together in your head before you go to sleep and hope that all of this can be.
And feel the light dimming,
Daylight fading,
Everything going soft and gray,
Colors less bright,
Noises a little more distant,
You're adrift.
You can float a little on all of it.
You breathe,
You might exhale tonight with the ancient word sela,
Ancient word of breath.
May occur to you,
The world is so vast,
So very wide,
Close at hand,
Intimate,
Loving,
And still often.
And all together,
Take it in and send out love and fidelity,
Affection,
And a generous grace.
And you are guarded,
Sheltered as in the cleft of a rock,
As under the wing of an eagle,
As though behind a great shield.
Nothing can reach you,
Nothing can harm you tonight.
You are sated and protected and extended into life.
Again,
You might wanna breathe deeply,
Exhale slowly with the word,
And you are lying down in a blissful peace,
A wholeness and a harmony so profound.
And this sleep,
This lying down will refresh you for a wholeness to come,
Going out of consciousness and soon back in when you're ready,
Your day begins.
You're liberated and preserved,
Guarded and rejoicing.
There are awesome and joyous forces watching you as you sleep,
Awesome and joyful forces that preceded you and watched over your ancestors.
And these same awesome and joyful forces will expand with those who come after.
Breathe in deeply and out using the word,
Sela.
At each moment,
The universe blesses you and the universe guards you,
Breathe in and out with that.
And the universe looks toward you with illumination and grace,
Breathe that in.
The universe is turning toward you even now with a blessing of peace,
Wholeness and harmony that is unprecedented.
You may need to yawn,
Just let sleep start to take you from the edges and then right.
And while you sleep,
You'll be guarded by awesome and joyous forces.
At your right hand,
The awesome and joyful force responsible for all the questions you have in the day,
Set them aside.
And then at your left hand,
An awesome and joyful force responsible for keeping you strong.
You can let go of all of your striving,
All of your will and your vigor and just set it aside to your left.
An awesome and joyful force holds up a nightlight to illumine your passage through sleep and dream.
And behind you,
A great healer force for deep restoration and all above you,
Just the glory of existence and the blessings of being alive even as you will sleep.
You may need some last adjustments,
A stretch,
A twitch,
Scratch,
Whatever you might need.
Breathe in and then yawn out in the middle of a vast and loving universe that is also close at hand,
Holding you,
Embracing you,
Going on and you don't need to worry.
You are as you will sleep.
