Drawing into the body.
Drawing into its joys and distresses.
Feeling the spaces of tension or illness or weariness or excitement.
Breathing deeply.
A deep breath you can exhale to yawn or with the ancient word cella.
Cella.
Coming to an acceptance that the body when used will deteriorate and that pain is a result of our actions good and bad.
The work we put in,
The joy we live.
And distress is a natural outcome of celebration.
Soreness a natural outcome of long walks and exercise.
And that we cannot exist without decay,
Without pain,
Without joy,
Without uprising,
Without sadness or tiredness.
These are parts of a life well lived.
A deep breath in a slow breath out.
Settling down.
Becoming more still.
Gently quiet.
Dopey.
Listening.
Listening to what's around you.
Listening to what's within you.
Following the course of your breath and the depth of your body.
Chronic or acute pain,
Muscle energy,
Excitement.
A slower or heightened pulse.
Just notice where you are.
The life you are living up to this moment.
A life well spent with a few interruptions and errors,
Of course.
Start to take it all in.
Feel any tension or careworn-ness around your temples and eyes.
Softening the skin of your forehead and elsewhere on your face.
Letting your jaw loosen.
Even your teeth could be soft.
Your tongue.
Heavy.
And begin with forgiveness.
Forgiveness of those around us who have angered or frustrated or disappointed us.
Left us sad or grieving.
Ghosted us.
You can certainly hold on to wounds and grievance.
It's not good for your sleep.
You could try.
Or you could,
Just for now,
Let go.
Consider forgiving.
And then,
Because truly if people injure us,
We must also injure them.
Sometimes on purpose,
Sometimes through no fault of our own.
Maybe you can ask for forgiveness from a person or from the world,
Generally.
Settling in and settling down.
May it be so.
Maybe you feel your eyes getting heavy,
Your pupils beginning to fade.
Light growing dim.
Body getting heavy.
And the light of the world is dim as you prepare to rest.
Take a moment to acknowledge what is good and great in this universe.
That it all comes from a single source and all follows the same physics and biology and patterns replicated at every degree.
All is one.
Take a moment to take that in.
Maybe you feel that unity.
Maybe you feel that uniqueness at various moments during the day.
When you lie down,
When you rise up,
When you sit,
When you stand,
When you walk in your house and out of it.
Just noticing the incredible shared and connectedness of this universe.
May that be so.
Breathing and taking it in.
Just gathering into yourself.
Getting heavy in the body and light in the mind and drifting.
And you're sheltered and protected.
Saved and covered.
Under blessed wings and a mighty shield.
Nothing can do you wrong right now.
No evil,
No plague.
And good and great forces can lift you through the world of dreams and sleep.
Guarding you in all your ways.
You will be strong and sated and eventually answered,
Delivered,
Carried,
And carried.
Protected and sheltered.
And you can lie down peacefully,
Knowing that when the time comes,
You will rise peacefully.
You can let go.
There's nothing to hold on to here.
Not much reason to stay awake.
Everything will be waiting for you when you get up.
Good and bad.
But not much to do about it right now.
And you can have peace all through the night.
Peace as you go out of consciousness and peace when you will return.
The universe goes on and on.
No beginning,
No end.
Eternal.
You amid it.
Great and good forces look after you just like they looked after those who preceded us.
Just as they will care for those next.
We can be healthy and strong through the night.
Great and good forces all around you,
Guarding you.
And the universe blesses you and protects you.
Take that in.
Breathe it deep.
And the universe shines its light toward you to give you peace.
And wholeness and grace.
The universe turns toward you in peace.
Recognizing you.
Welcoming you to sleep.
And great and good forces surround you.
During the day,
You have so many questions and doubts and struggles.
Anxieties.
All these questions.
And at night,
You can put them by your right side with a great and good force who will hold your questions till the morning.
In the day,
Grappling and energy and lifting and striving and enduring.
Good things.
But at night,
You can let that go.
You can let go of all of that vigor.
Set it down to your left side with a great and good force who will attend to your strength and muscles.
Heroism.
And ahead of you,
A great and good force bears a light.
And behind you,
Another force offers you healing.
Right through your body.
Healing of sleep and beyond.
Restoration.
And all over you,
The wonder and majesty of a loving universe.
Feel yourself growing in all the generations.
Stretch and wrestle and expand.
Breathing in and out with a,
So uh,
So uh.
And the world goes on.
It has been here long before you and continues after us.
It was.
It is.
It will be.
That's a great gift to you.
You don't have to worry over every little detail.
The universe has its own way of worrying about things.
No beginning,
No end.
You get to be here.
In this incredible place.
Rest now.
It's time to sleep.
And lay your body and spirit in the hand of a loving universe.
Until it's time to wake.
And you have nothing to fear.
