Journey To Orcas Island For Deep Sleep

Many years ago, my friend and I went to Orcas Island. Come experience what the journey to Orcas Island is like, from the trip through the desert of eastern Washington, Snoqualmie Pass, and on a ferry, to end up that night by a fire at our campsite, watching the stars.

The music is "Letting Go" by Christopher Lloyd Clarke.

Transcript

Hi there and welcome to this sleep meditation.

Tonight I want to describe to you a wonderful journey that I took a number of years ago back when I was living in Washington State.

I took this trip with a friend of mine because we wanted to go to a training together.

We needed to learn new things and we wanted to hear great stories because we understood that this teacher taught in storytelling form and I found that very interesting and so did my friend.

So we decided that we would save our money and make the journey to the other side of the state to attend this training on Orcas Island.

Now I don't know how many of you may be familiar with Orcas Island off the coast of Washington State and I don't know how many of you may even know where Washington State is if you don't live in the United States and in the event that you don't live in the United States,

Washington State is the uppermost,

Farthest west state of the contiguous 48.

Of course the state that is farther west and farther north would be Alaska and this is Washington State and it's an interesting state to live in and be in and work in.

Part of the state has lush evergreens and they're located on the western side of the Cascade Mountains and even in the mountains and once you go to the eastern side of the state you're in what's considered the rain shadow and in being in the rain shadow it's a desert,

High desert for the most part of it and there's the other part of eastern Washington that is known as the fruit bowl because a lot of stone fruits are grown there as well as apples and a lot of other fruit and vegetables as well and it's an interesting place to be in the wintertime in the desert especially when we're in an inversion where the sky stays gray and it's cold yet not bitterly cold around freezing and then the high may get a few degrees above freezing,

Not many and there was a time that I was there that had gone 16 days and I had not seen the sun and for me that was a particularly difficult time and I didn't know then that that the sun would make such a wonderful difference in my life as far as mood and just general overall well-being Anyway,

Back to the story about my friend of mine and I,

Our trip that we took to an island off the west coast of Washington state and this island is called Orcas Island after the whales,

The orcas,

And you can actually see orcas and other whales from this island and Orcas Island is a part of the San Juan Islands and I had never been there and my friend had and she was excited to show it to me and so we drove across the state through the desert into the mountains and through the mountain pass and it was summer time so it was safe to go there and it was summer time so it was safe to drive through the pass as there was no snow or ice there was rain some not much and when we got over to the coast we had to get on a ferry and as I describe this trip to you I invite you to get really cozy and comfortable into your bed and you can allow yourself to drift off to sleep and I'm going to take you on this trip and I'm going to take you on this trip to Orcas Island and you can imagine that you're riding the ferry from the mainland and it's about a half an hour 45 minute ride and you can imagine that you've decided to take a seat on the bow of the boat so you can watch the island Orcas Island to become larger in your view as the ferry grows closer as the ferry grows closer and even though it is summertime the weather is cool particularly in comparison to the desert on the other side of the mountain range there's a steady headwind off the bow of the boat as it skims across the sea and there are some metal benches for people to sit on and there's an area inside where if you want you can sit in there and look through the windows at the scenic view and as you stand at the edge of the boat rather than sitting either inside or on a bench you can see the water rushing below and you can look down at the water and hear the sounds of the water from the bay lapping at the side of the ferry boat and the wind is slightly salty and refreshing catching your clothes and making them dance on your body and the hum of the engines is loud yet calming and there are some people sitting on the side of the boat and there are people sitting on the benches as they watch the very same scene as you and there are a few children who are enjoying the ride likely more than anyone else pointing and smiling at the bald eagles in the trees and the seals that looks like and the seals looks like possibly sea lions swimming in and around and the ferry engines slow because it's coming into port at the island and the captain maneuvers the boat just perfectly docking with precision like a thread going through the eye of a needle and several workers get off the boat before it comes to a stop grabbing all sorts of ropes to tie it securely and buoys to act as a buffer between the dock and the ferry and a small bridge extends off the side of the boat to allow for us passengers to exit and a large ramp on the end of the boat slowly lowers to allow for the cars that it carried across the bay to drive off that it carried across the bay to drive off and we went into that area where they had stored the vehicles so that we could have our turn to drive onto the island and it's amazing how the whole process of unloading everything and everyone just goes so smoothly and there's no rushing and no waiting in line and you can hear some seabirds flying overhead as you enter one of the many beautiful villages that they have and there are buildings that line the seaside very short because they have regulations that they're not to be very tall a couple stories in different colors and whites and creams and some are interesting colors and blues and yellows and I even saw a pink one and the rooftops are matching gray and you can see each building has a few chimneys for when the weather does turn cold and some buildings have small balconies or porches only big enough for just some potted plants and maybe a chair or two the shutters on the windows vary from mint green to leaf green and on the pink house they decided that they would do a darker shade of pink which I found interesting and this is such a beautiful little island and it's just bustling with the energy of its people and there's a great library and bookstore that my friend and I went into and we walked around and just wanted to see what the used bookstore had and I went over to the fiction section and I found a bunch of books by Richard Bach he was the one who wrote Jonathan Livingston Segal and Illusions and Bridge Across Forever and One among others and there were multiple copies of all of his books there was even a hardback copy of Illusions which is my favorite book of all and so I picked it up and I got it and I was kind of surprised at how many were there and I mentioned that to the store clerk and he said well you know he lives on the island and the other store clerk said you can't be telling people that celebrities live on this island that's not how it works and I never would have gone to have seen him because privacy is something that's very important to me and I thanked them and I took the books and I went home and the village is just situated in a cove so it's protected from the sea and you can turn to look out into the turquoise water and across the marina full of small boats you see the sprawling nature of the island golden and green hues of tall grasses stretch across the rocky shore you can make out some old wartime buildings that have turned to ruins and see small windows that the soldiers could peek out to see enemy ships approaching and the buildings protected the soldiers yet allowed enough access to do what they needed to do during that time and nature has since taken over these structures and grasses growing high around them and vines clinging to their walls strong cedar trees thrive on this island as well as a few of other varieties of shorter trees evergreens are everywhere and you can begin to walk through the village and there are bicycles lining the streets along with some scooters and some motorcycles and there are places that you can rent bicycles to ride around the island and many do and there are various places to dine that have large awnings to seat many people outside and the tables and chairs at these places are placed as closely together as they can get allowing for a maximum number of customers other places aren't quite as packed and some shops you pass by are filled to the brim with one-of-a-kind paintings flashing their beauty through the windows enticing people to enter the gallery and buy one to take home and you're enjoying the simple geometric shapes of the architecture and how so many windows are open letting the fresh air in on a daily basis and some of the open windows have white curtains dancing in the wind and as you pass by a busy crepe shop you can smell the aroma of chocolate and the batter of the crepes cooking on the skillet and as you walk through the shop you can smell the a busy crepe shop you can smell the aroma of chocolate and the batter of the crepes cooking on the skillet and people are delightfully eating their crepes and you can see them stuffed with various kinds of delicious ingredients you might stop by later to have a crepe or two but for now you want to walk along the nature footpaths nearby to begin exploring beautiful Orcas Island and as you walk away from the village there are several footpaths through the tall grasses that lead to various nature areas and ruins and beautiful secluded coves with turquoise waters and sandy beaches and you decide to take the path that leaves to the cliffside to see the beautiful sights of the windswept offshore jagged rock formations and you may notice that on some of the beaches that instead of sand there are pebbles and rocks of different sizes and you can pick up one to take home with you and you can walk along the beige colored footpath and so many footsteps before you have walked and notice the low growing plant life surrounding you surrounding you and there are colors of sage green and deep green nature not seeming to mind that these greens don't match but they complement and are beautiful because they're all living and when you get to the coast on the other side you see the waves crashing and carving this landscape as it has for many many years and it is spectacular and you can look out onto the ocean and you may see whales or seals dancing in the water and from your vantage point you're so high above sea level that you are somewhat looking down at these amazing animals the only plant life that can grow on these rocks acts as a dark green plant life that can grow on these rocks acts as a dark green blanket covering the lower half because the sea below is frothing with energy and the winds are demanding this is not an ocean you can swim in the waves are viciously splashing against the cliffs and the rocks and turning the turquoise water white with bubbles and the sun is sparkling on the surface and you can find a soft place to sit and soak up the sunset it turns the ocean pink and the sky violet and this memory can go in to your mind forever the sky is turning a light orange where the sun is escaping and dark blue as night draws in and at this point you take a footpath and at this point you take a footpath away from there back to the place where we had slept for the night we had set up camp at west beach and as you go back to west beach there are not many of us there at the campground and yet there are enough and there are a number of people with fires beside their campsites and somebody has a guitar off in the far distant one most of us are just sitting around smiling and sipping on various cups of whatever we have that night and as we sit around the fire looking up through the smoke through the trillion stars that sparkle back to us from the sky and it's beautiful and it's stunning and it makes everything make sense and sometimes escaping can bring you back home again to what's right and true to your soul and you take in the stillness with the rest of us and the guitar is not playing anymore and we hear the pops and cracks and whistles of the fires around us as they slowly burn into embers for the night and we crawl in to our beds after we extinguish the fire and zip up our tents and our sleeping bags and listening to the sound of night sounds crickets and other things just feeling so connected to the earth upon which we're sleeping and so connected to one another sharing this experience slowly or quickly into a deep rest for the rest of the night for the rest of the night so you

Reviews

Beautiful Journey Meditation presented with a mesmerizing voice. You are gifted🙏💞🤍✨️🤍 Thank you for sharing your experience❤️

Third time to listen and it puts me to sleep 🙏🏼🥰

Helped me to ease bsck into sleep. I will listen to the story again.
Thanks h