Journey To The Ice Wall (Long Bedtime Story)

Just take a moment to allow yourself to get comfortable and close your eyes and as you drift deeply and soundly asleep,

I don't know whether you'll drift deeper asleep to the sound of my voice or to the spaces between my words.

And with your eyes closed,

You can begin to have a sense of relaxing your mind and body as I count down from 20 to 1.

Becoming deeper absorbed in the experience with each number,

From 20,

Beginning to focus on the top of your head,

Noticing what your head is resting on,

How it's supported gently in place,

The comfort in and around your head as it rests there.

19,

Having a sense of the muscles around your scalp and the back of your head softening and relaxing deeper and deeper,

Drawing in peace and comfort with each breath that you take before moving your awareness around your face.

18,

Focusing on what it's like for that relaxation to spread around your face,

Your ears and your cheeks.

Having the muscles in these areas soften and relax.

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Relaxing the muscles around your eyes and across your forehead,

While the muscles around the side of your head and over the top of your head begin to relax deeper and deeper.

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Noticing how you can pay attention to fading tension or perhaps find that tension dissolves without paying it any attention at all.

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And you can continue to allow that relaxation to spread down around your mouth,

Relaxing your lips and your jaw.

Relaxing the muscles around the side of your neck,

Around to the back of your neck and around your throat.

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And as your jaw relaxes and hangs slightly loose,

Limp and comfortable,

That relaxation can continue to move down to your shoulders and your upper back.

13,

And I don't know whether that relaxation happens fastest around your shoulders or in the upper back or perhaps down the tops or the front of your shoulders.

As that relaxation progresses around your back and your chest,

Softening and relaxing those muscles fully,

Deeply and comfortably.

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And as those muscles soften and relax while you rest there,

That relaxation can begin to spread down the arms to the hands,

All the way down to the fingertips.

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And I don't know which arm will relax fully fastest,

Whether it'll be the left arm or the right arm,

Or whether the arms will relax at the same rate and speed as each other.

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And as that relaxation continues through those arms,

It can flow down through your stomach,

Your sides and lower back,

All the way down to your bottom,

Before extending deeply down through your legs to the tips of your toes.

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And as your body becomes deeper and deeper relaxed,

While you drift into the most pleasant sleep,

So your mind begins to relax as a wave of healing light gently passes down through your body.

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You begin to have a sense of that healing light touching your forehead,

Enveloping your face and head with healing deep relaxation.

Absorbing comfortably and gently into you with each in-breath that you take.

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Filling you with peace and calm,

Spreading that healing,

Restorative,

Recuperative light down through your body,

Calming your mind.

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Breathing in healing,

Calm relaxation,

And breathing out any stress or tension.

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Aware of that healing light passing down your neck,

Softening and relaxing those muscles,

Spreading that healing light throughout the neck as it spreads down with the next breath to your shoulders,

Around the back of your neck and down into your arms.

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Gradually continuing that flow of healing light all the way to the tips of the fingers.

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And with another in-breath,

The healing light can spread down through the body,

Softening and relaxing muscles,

Healing deep within the body,

Filling the body with pleasure and deep relaxation.

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As the light journeys down around your stomach,

Your lower back and sides,

Into your buttocks and all the way down to the soles of your feet,

Perhaps noticing your whole mind and body filling with a deep sense of peace and calm.

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And as you allow that light to flow with each breath,

You can find your mind drifting deeper and deeper asleep as you drift comfortably into this story.

And you find yourself resting one day,

Lying in the most beautiful meadow on a very slight gentle hill,

And as you rest on that gentle hill,

You can feel the slight cool breeze of the night sky on your cheeks,

You can feel the softness of the grass underneath your hands,

You can hear some of those evening sounds around you,

Sounds of distant birds and animals just settling down for the night,

Resting there in that meadow,

The moonlight casting the most beautiful glow across the landscape,

A certain silence to the landscape punctuated by those animal sounds,

And the sight of meteors passing across the sky from time to time,

Where you have that sense as if you can hear a slight fizzing from each one,

Even though in reality they pass in silence,

And you rest there,

Just enjoying this environment,

You've been out on an evening walk,

And like all good evening walks,

You settle down to enjoy some time in nature before continuing and heading home,

And as you rest here,

Lying in this meadow,

You close your eyes and absorb yourself in a reverie listening to those sounds around you,

And in this reverie that begins to form,

You start to have a sense of walking through a vineyard on a summer's day,

Smelling the scents within this vineyard,

Hearing the slight hustle and bustle of people working in the vineyard,

And noticing that a whole community comes together at this vineyard,

To get the work done when the work needs to be done,

And then at the end of a work day,

To celebrate completing all of the work,

They gather around,

They light candles,

Place them within paper lanterns,

And watch as they rise up into the sky,

And float gently through the sky,

Carried so softly by the wind,

And you know that something about your reveries is teaching you something about yourself,

And as you exit the reverie,

So you stand up,

You descend that gentle sloping meadow,

Beginning your journey back home,

You descend all the way down towards the river you can see at the base of this meadow,

You can notice the glistening silver sparkles of the moonlight on that river's surface,

And you head all the way down to that river's edge,

And walk along the river's edge for a little bit,

Until you reach your canoe,

And you push your canoe just into the water,

Hearing it sliding along the ground,

And the sound it makes as it enters the water,

And the slight splosh that it makes as the back of the canoe lands into the water,

Before picking up the oar,

Climbing into the canoe,

It gently bobbing up and down as you climb in,

Pushing away from the shore with the oar,

And beginning to paddle down this river,

The sound of each paddle pushing that water back on one side,

And then the other,

One side,

And then the other,

The canoe gently slicing through that water,

So calmly,

So relaxed,

And so effortlessly,

And you follow this river back towards the town,

And the river weaves around a little,

And you journey home,

Weaving through this meadowy landscape,

These gentle,

Slightly undulating hills,

And eventually you can see the lights of the town,

You continue canoeing gently towards that town,

And you pass under the stone bridge at the entrance to the town,

You pass alongside a water mill,

You continue on following this river,

Until you reach a wooden mooring,

Which is a mooring at the base of your home,

And you put alongside,

Grabbing the mooring as you gently drift past,

Holding yourself against that mooring,

You place the oar onto the mooring,

And then climb out of the canoe,

Then grab hold of the front of the canoe,

Of the rope attached at the front,

And you pull it up onto the mooring,

Taking a few steps back,

That slight grinding sound as it pulls out of the water,

Aware of the sudden weight of that canoe as it leaves the water,

Pulling it up onto the mooring,

Pulling it a little way away from the edge,

Dragging it over to the side of your garden here,

And turning it upside down,

And then going and grabbing the oar,

Taking the oar over to the canoe,

Placing that down beside the canoe,

And then attaching it to some posts,

So that it won't perhaps blow away if there's a strong wind,

Then you walk up a path from the end of your garden,

Where the river passes by,

Up following that garden path,

Towards your house,

And on arrival at your house,

At the back door to your house,

You let yourself in,

Turn on the light,

Close the door behind you,

You make yourself a warm drink,

Before settling down on a chair in front of a cosy fire,

And you drink that drink,

And enjoy relaxing by the fire,

Before picking up an old adventure book,

And beginning to read through that old adventure book,

About an adventurer,

And after reading that book about the adventurer,

With it being very late now,

You head to bed,

And as you head to bed and settle down to sleep,

You begin to drift into the most pleasant dream,

And you dream of being an adventurer,

Of being in Egypt,

And a lunar eclipse happens,

And you can see that lunar eclipse,

Alongside the pyramids,

The silvery moon,

Being covered by the shadow of the earth,

And then turning a blood red,

And after a while,

The slither of silver appears again,

As the earth's shadow begins to leave the face of the moon,

And during the eclipse,

You notice something strange,

That there seems to be just the faintest beam of light coming from the top of one of the pyramids,

And it's so faint that you can only see it by not looking at it,

But it gets you curious,

And so you go to explore that pyramid,

And you climb up,

Some of the stones,

Scrabbling up,

Higher and higher,

Until you get to an entrance into the pyramid,

And you squeeze into that entrance of the pyramid,

And begin to explore the inside of this pyramid,

And each footstep seems to reverberate down the corridor within the pyramid,

And when you tap the side of the pyramid,

Tapping the stones on the inside of this corridor,

You can hear that it seems to chime and resonate with the most beautiful musical note,

And you follow this corridor,

Until you come to a vast chamber,

And in the middle of the chamber,

Appears to be what looks like a sarcophagus,

And you see that the top of this sarcophagus is missing,

But when you look into it,

What you see is curious,

It looks like steps leading down somewhere,

And so you climb into the sarcophagus,

You begin to descend those steps 20,

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As you descend those steps,

And step off of the last step,

You're surprised because you find yourself,

Not in a chamber somewhere deep under the pyramid,

But at some point between that top step and the bottom step,

Something must have happened,

Perhaps you passed through a portal unknowingly,

Because you find that you're in the most beautiful land,

As you gaze around,

There's meadows and woodland,

And it's night time here too,

Just like where you came from,

Only,

You definitely seem to be outside,

There is no roof,

There's no walls,

Just endless landscape,

And so you begin to explore this landscape,

You see some lights in the distance and decide to head towards them,

Maybe whoever's there can tell you where here is,

And as you head towards those lights,

As night continues and you can feel the coolness on your cheeks,

You notice that what you're heading towards is a castle,

And so you walk towards that castle,

Eventually arriving at the castle,

Crossing a drawbridge,

Knocking on the door to the castle,

And someone comes to greet you,

And they tell you about this castle,

They tell you that this castle is home to the ruler of this land,

And you ask where this land is,

And they seem surprised by your question,

As if you should know,

And they seem to have no knowledge of the land you came from,

And you ask for more details and they tell you that perhaps you should visit the library and take a look at the atlas of this land,

And so you visit the library within the castle,

The scent of all the old books,

The dullness to each footstep,

As all the tomes in this library absorb sound,

Like absorbing knowledge,

Ready to share with those who seek,

And you're handed a large atlas,

And you begin to look through that atlas,

You find where you are now,

But you can't seem to see any evidence for anything familiar or where you came from,

But something takes you by surprise,

That it lists on the atlas something called a firmament,

And you ask what that is,

And they say that it's obvious,

This land is contained under the firmament,

And you ask are they referring to stars in the night sky,

And they don't understand what you mean,

So you ask them to explain what the firmament is,

And they tell you that above and below is an ocean for the gods,

That the gods live within an ocean,

And you almost laugh at how ridiculous this sounds,

But they look confused at you and you realise that they're being serious,

So you ask how they know there's a firmament,

And they tell you that it has been seen,

If you walk to the edge of the land,

You reach the wall of the firmament,

And you're curious whether this is possible for someone to walk to the edge of the land,

You say isn't the land a sphere,

And they look confused again,

And so with curiosity you say that you would like to explore,

You would like to see the firmament up close,

And they say that you'll need to be well rested,

It's a long journey,

Very few people ever make it,

Because it's just so far people want to give up long before they get there,

And many people have no interest in making it to the firmament,

It's not something they're particularly interested in seeing,

And you're offered a room to sleep in for the night,

And some food,

And so you eat the food and settle down for the night,

And the next day,

You ask what gear you would need,

How you would need to prepare to go and see the firmament,

And they share with you what you would need,

They offer a horse for you to travel on,

They tell you that that horse will get you all the way to the ice wall,

But at the ice wall you'll be on your own,

Because once you reach the ice wall you'll have to ascend that wall,

And the horse obviously can't ascend the wall,

And even if it could it'll be too cold crossing the ice for the horse to be able to make that journey,

And so you set off from the castle,

You have a map of this landscape,

You see on the map the shortest route and the easiest route to that ice wall,

And you set off,

And you travel through this landscape,

Trotting along through the most beautiful meadows,

Past the softest,

Gentlest flowing rivers,

Saying hello to the friendliest folk,

And after a few days of travel,

You now realise you're barely seeing another person,

There are no longer any settlements,

It's just you and the horse travelling towards the ice wall,

And eventually you can feel a very slight chill in the air,

As the wind is blowing across the ice,

And the cold air is flowing down the ice wall,

And along the ground in your direction,

And you head towards that cold air,

Eventually noticing the ice just a faint white line on the horizon,

And you continue travelling,

And every night you settle down for the night,

You gaze up at the sky,

And to you it resembles stars,

Not the constellations that you're familiar with,

But stars nonetheless,

So you can't understand how it could be interpreted as anything other than a night sky,

But at the same time,

You definitely seem to be heading towards ice,

And so you wonder if it's just mountains,

Perhaps it's just an icy part of a continent,

Maybe these people here don't really understand and assume that it's a wall,

And every day you continue your journey,

As that white line on the horizon gradually gets larger and larger as you get closer and closer,

And eventually one day you arrive at that ice wall,

You know you have to make the rest of the journey on your own,

And so you make sure that the horse is okay,

There's plenty of food and grazing space in this meadow,

And you hope that the horse will remain,

So that it's still here when you begin your journey home,

Back towards that castle,

And you walk over to the ice wall,

And you begin to ascend,

And you just place one hand in front of the other,

One foot in front of the other as you ascend that wall,

And it seems to tower so high above you,

That you can't make out the top,

It just seems so tall,

And you continue to ascend,

And it's so high that night time begins to set in,

And you're still ascending,

And so while being attached to the ice wall,

You swing your backpack round in front of you,

And you take out a special kind of tent,

Which screws into this ice wall,

Creating a platform,

And then to help brace that in place,

It has a few other attachments which you also attach to the ice wall,

Diagonally from the far legs,

And then you climb into that tent,

You settle down and fall asleep,

The next day waking to the light of the sun shining through the canvas of the tent,

The cool air outside the tent,

The canvas vibrating in the breeze,

You exit the tent,

Attach yourself back to the wall,

As you pack the tent away and continue to ascend,

And as nightfall is setting in again,

Finally you see the top of the wall in sight,

And so you push on,

Eventually reaching the top,

Climbing over the top of this ice wall,

Now being on top of the wall,

And you check your directions,

Before continuing to walk,

Heading away from the edge,

Walking for a while,

To get a good bit of distance between yourself and the edge,

Before setting up camp again,

And then once again the next day,

Continuing to walk,

To the edge of the wall,

Curious what you'll discover,

In your mind you imagine,

Eventually you'll just reach an ocean,

You'll reach the edge of the ice,

And perhaps see more land,

Or an ocean,

Or something that lets you know this is just part of a continent,

But as you continue walking you find that that isn't the case,

And each day you continue walking further and further,

And this ice shelf,

This top of the ice wall,

Just seems to go on and on and on,

And you're dressed appropriately for the conditions,

And eventually one night,

You finally start to notice something on the horizon,

A slight glowing,

A little bit like the northern lights,

But it looks a little strange,

And it's just on the horizon,

Not seeming to be high in the sky,

And there's some shimmering behind those northern lights,

And you close in day after day,

And by daytime,

You can't notice that,

Everything just looks blue,

There's no signs of clouds down here,

And by night,

There's the shimmering light,

Getting closer and closer every day,

Until eventually,

You encounter the most incredible thing,

You're walking along,

And suddenly,

You strike something,

Like walking into glass that you haven't seen,

That doesn't give,

Doesn't break,

And was unexpected,

And you notice that at that point,

As you look down,

There's no ice,

And you realise,

This is like a glass dome,

And the curvature of this dome distorts the view slightly from this angle,

And so you try and get a different angle of this dome,

Getting down near the base of the dome,

And putting your face right up to the dome,

And your hands either side of your eyes,

And as you look just right,

You find you can see through this dome,

And you notice the most incredible sight,

That beyond the dome,

Is like the deep ocean,

You can just about make out,

That somewhere up above,

Is that faint sight,

As if there's the surface of an ocean,

And perhaps a sun beyond that surface of the ocean,

You can see large whales,

Gracefully swimming in water,

And you try and work out what you're looking at,

You tap on the dome,

And it just sounds like tapping on glass,

And you can't figure out where you are,

But it definitely looks as if you're under a dome under the ocean,

And somehow,

Something has been done,

That makes it so that unless you get right up to this dome,

It just looks like a normal sky,

And by night,

It looks like strange constellations,

But it still just looks ordinary,

And yet here,

You can see whales,

You can see the undulating,

Shimmering surface of the ocean's water above,

And you can't quite work it out,

And after some time of trying to figure this out,

Remaining at this dome,

You take a look at the map,

You see that marked on the map,

Some miles from the ice wall,

Is a cross,

And a sign saying the old sage,

And you wonder whether that old sage,

Or a descendant of them,

Still exists,

And decide to explore,

And so with the next hint of daylight,

You begin your return journey,

Crunching through the snow,

Heading back across that ice wall,

All the way back,

To the edge of the wall,

Where you descend that wall all the way down,

To the land below,

You see the horse still waiting there,

Just grazing,

Seeming so relaxed,

You mount the horse and you set off in the direction of that sage,

You travel for a few days,

Until eventually,

You see what looks like just an ordinary run down shack,

In the middle of some beautiful woodland,

And you head to that shack,

Dismount the horse,

You see some lights on in the shack,

You knock on the door and somebody answers,

And it turns out,

That there's this really old person,

With a flowing grey beard,

Long grey hair,

And the kindest looking eyes,

And they invite you in with enthusiasm,

As if they haven't had a guest for years,

And before you've even settled down,

They offer you a drink,

They gesture for you to sit by the fire,

And they start asking you questions about who you are,

Where you've come from,

What you've been doing,

Showing so much intrigue in you,

And you answer their questions,

Before saying you have questions of your own,

And you explain you went to the ice wall,

You ascended that wall and you travelled,

To what you've been told is the firmament,

And you were shocked when you looked,

To discover that it looks like what you can only reference as being under the ocean,

And you say that where you come from,

There is no firmament,

If you headed in one direction far enough and for long enough,

You get back to where you started,

And the sage says they've been around for as long as time here itself,

They were one of the first here,

Thousands of years earlier,

They remain here as a guardian of this land,

They explain that many thousands of years ago,

Something was due to happen,

And there was an advanced civilisation at that time,

Living on the planet,

And they realised that they were going to have to build communities under the sea,

Protected by the depths of the ocean,

And so they created portals,

They placed these portals in safe locations,

They had rituals around the portals,

And there was a reverence around the technology of the portals,

And they wanted to create lasting landmarks around the portals,

So that they could be easily discovered,

And the assumption was that the knowledge would pass down through generations,

And the assumption through the portals was that people would remember about the portals and why they travelled through them,

And people transferred through those portals from that advanced civilisation,

To settlements under domes deep under the ocean surface,

And these domes were designed to be powered by the weight and the movement of the water overhead,

And to give a feeling similar to life on the planet's surface as it was at the time,

And the idea was that they would need to stay in this location,

Perhaps for a few thousand years,

Until they're informed that it's safe to return back to the surface world,

And a few thousand years later,

Some people returned to the surface world having been informed that it's safe now to do so,

Others had built communities down here,

And loved where they lived,

And the life they had,

And so they stayed,

And over time,

Those left behind,

Who chose to stay,

Had generation after generation after generation,

Forgetting and no longer passing on,

The knowledge of the portals and their locations,

And accepting this as the reality,

And there are some,

The sage said,

Like themselves,

Who remained,

Who if anyone wanted,

To know the truth of this location,

They can always seek them out and find out,

But even they've lost the knowledge now,

Of where the portals to the world above actually are,

And there are portals you can walk through,

That will take you to the other similar locations,

All deep under the ocean,

And the sage explained that it seemed,

That that ancient civilisation,

On the surface of the planet,

Probably also over time,

Forgot about the portals,

And gradually,

Through time,

Knowledge of the portals was erased from awareness,

And no one ever returned,

And no one travelled back,

And they can't even remember now,

Exactly what that threat was,

All those thousands and thousands of years ago,

But this is the most beautiful place to live,

So calm and serene,

And you spend the night,

And the next day,

You head back to the castle,

You return the horse,

You decide not to say anything about your discoveries,

Other than they're correct,

There is a firmament,

At the edge of their land,

And you've seen it,

And you find your way back to that portal,

Back to those steps where you ascend,

Finding yourself back in that pyramid,

And you leave that pyramid,

And you wonder whether anyone else will ever stumble upon that in the future,

As you drift deeper and deeper asleep,

And this experience begins to fade,

And while the experience is fading,

It's like one of those dreams where you couldn't quite tell,

Whether it was a dream,

Or whether it was real,

But it definitely was curious,

And it taught you something profound,

As you then find yourself drifting,

And floating so deeply and comfortably asleep,

Into slumberland,