Lazing Lagoon

The waters of the Lazing Lagoon are calm, occurrence mild, a light breeze blows wrinkles into the water's surface and the houseboats rock gently at anchor. It's warm and comfortable, not hot at all. Here on the deck of our boat, the sylvie of the sea, we can take in all of the landscape in a single sweep of the eye. What is there here? What indeed, apart from the lovely blue sky with the wisps of cloud against it and the beach and the water itself. Whoever named it the lasing lagoon understood its atmosphere to a T, so we can make the most of it. I think it's nice to begin with a little wind down. Tonight's wind down is a visualization. So no matter what's been going on today, whether it's been a busy day or a calm one, this is an opportunity to put everything down, to let go of any inner chatter and find a place of rest in both the body and the mind. So first, get yourself comfortable in bed, just taking a moment to pause and be still. And when you're ready, taking a big, deep breath, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. And as you breathe out, allowing the body to sink down into your bed, feeling the weight of the body, allowing thoughts to come and go. Now imagining a steady flow of warm sunlight, flowing down through the body, dissolving any tension, any discomfort as it begins to fill the body, starting with the toes. Moving up through the feet and the legs, being filled with sunlight. The qualities of a warmth, space and ease as it continues to travel up through the body. Up past the waist, to the back and the stomach. It's as though it washes away any discomfort. It continues up through the chest and the back, into the shoulders and down the arms, all the way down to the hands and fingers. A sense of relief in the body and stillness in the mind as it continues to travel up through the neck and the throat, into the head and face all the way to the very top of the body, until there's nothing other than that sense of stillness remaining. And now just gently bringing the attention back to the body. You turn inland looking over the dunes, your eye following not the decked walkway that leads to the car park but the smaller sandy path, which meanders over the dunes. The brochures said there were animals here, deer, eagles, rabbits, dolphin, but perhaps it's the wrong time of year because the only wildlife you've seen so far apart from the little gray fish beneath the boat was a flock of pale pink flamingos standing with their ankles in the water on the opposite shore. Oh no, you've almost forgotten the little tortoise. You were so lost in thought the day you arrived that you might've missed that little...