Beach Walk (Encore)

Speaker 1 Get more, nothing much happens with bonus episodes, extra long stories, and ad-free listening, all while supporting the show you love. Subscribe now.

Speaker 2 I am so excited for this spa day. Candles lit, music on, hot tub warm and ready.

Speaker 2 And then my chronic hives come back. Again, in the middle of my spa day, what a wet blanket looks like another spell of itchy red skin.

Speaker 2 If you have chronic spontaneous urticaria or CSU, there is a different treatment option. Hives during my next spa day? Not if I can help it.
Learn more at treatmyhives.com.

Speaker 3 Transform your home during Blinds.com's Black Friday Super Sale. Get up to 50% off site-wide, plus huge doorbuster deals on popular styles.

Speaker 3 Go DIY and do it all 100% online, or choose white glove service with expert design help and professional installation. Both backed by Blinds.com's 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.

Speaker 3 Blinds.com's Black Friday Super Sale is here. Save up to 50% site-wide and get a free professional measure.
Limited time offer rules and restrictions apply. See Blinds.com for details.

Speaker 1 Welcome to Bedtime Stories for Everyone,

Speaker 1 in which

Speaker 1 nothing much happens.

Speaker 1 You feel good,

Speaker 1 and then

Speaker 1 you fall asleep.

Speaker 1 I'm Catherine Nikolai.

Speaker 1 I write and read all the stories you hear on Nothing Much Happens.

Speaker 1 Audio Engineering is by Bob Wittersheim.

Speaker 1 We are bringing you an encore episode tonight, meaning that this story originally aired at some point in the past. It could have been recorded with different equipment in a different location.

Speaker 1 And since I'm a person and not a computer, I sometimes sound just slightly different.

Speaker 1 But the stories are always soothing and family-friendly. And our wishes for you are always deep rest and sweet dreams.

Speaker 1 Busy minds need a place to rest.

Speaker 1 I've written you a soft landing,

Speaker 1 a simple story to rest your attention on.

Speaker 1 I'll tell it twice, and I'll go a little slower the second time through.

Speaker 1 Just by listening, you'll shift your brain activity and put yourself in a place where sleep will come.

Speaker 1 If you wake in the night, you can listen again.

Speaker 1 or think through any parts that you can remember. Your brain will shift again and you will fall right back to sleep.

Speaker 1 We're creating a conditioned response, so know that the more you do this, the more reliable your sleep will be.

Speaker 1 If you're new here,

Speaker 1 well,

Speaker 1 be patient at first.

Speaker 1 Our story tonight is called Beach Walk, and it's a story about meeting the morning light where the water meets the land.

Speaker 1 It's also about the first step into the cool water.

Speaker 1 A dog chasing a stick into the waves.

Speaker 1 And a beach towel laid out neatly in the sand.

Speaker 1 All right,

Speaker 1 it's time.

Speaker 1 Turn off your light.

Speaker 1 Set down what you were looking at.

Speaker 1 Get the right pillow in the right spot.

Speaker 1 And make your own comfort your first priority.

Speaker 1 Whatever happened today

Speaker 1 is what happened today,

Speaker 1 and now we're here.

Speaker 1 You are safe,

Speaker 1 and I will keep watch.

Speaker 1 Together, let's breathe in deep through the nose

Speaker 1 and sigh through the mouth.

Speaker 1 Nice. Once more, breathe in,

Speaker 1 Let it out.

Speaker 1 Good.

Speaker 1 Beach walk.

Speaker 1 Sometimes I went in the afternoon

Speaker 1 or just before sunset.

Speaker 1 It depended on the day,

Speaker 1 on the heat, and the sun,

Speaker 1 and how many other people might be walking.

Speaker 1 Today I woke up early

Speaker 1 and decided that before I got tangled up in any other ideas

Speaker 1 and chores

Speaker 1 or a to-do list,

Speaker 1 I'd just go.

Speaker 1 It was something a friend of mine used to say,

Speaker 1 When in doubt, do what you were going to do first.

Speaker 1 A suggestion to trust your instincts and not overthink.

Speaker 1 So I trusted mine.

Speaker 1 I put my swimsuit on with shorts and a tank top

Speaker 1 and grabbed a few beach towels.

Speaker 1 and the jug I took on hikes filled with ice water

Speaker 1 and drove out to the beach.

Speaker 1 The lot was a long, narrow space that would be full of cars and scooters and bikes by midday.

Speaker 1 But this early there were only a few others parked there.

Speaker 1 I left most of my things in my car,

Speaker 1 thinking that I'd take a long walk, then come back here before a swim.

Speaker 1 I even left my flip-flops in the footwell of the car.

Speaker 1 As soon as I stepped out onto the sand,

Speaker 1 I wanted to be barefoot.

Speaker 1 It was cool under my soles

Speaker 1 and damp.

Speaker 1 Just the the right texture to make a castle with.

Speaker 1 The sun was still low on the horizon.

Speaker 1 Its rays hadn't had a chance yet to heat up all those many grains of sand.

Speaker 1 I stood still,

Speaker 1 feeling them shift beneath me,

Speaker 1 wondering just how many there might be on a beach like this.

Speaker 1 I'd read once that our brains run on 86 billion neurons,

Speaker 1 that there are two hundred billion trillion stars in the observable universe.

Speaker 1 And I wondered about the number of blades of grass,

Speaker 1 of feathers, of pounds of salt in the ocean, of gemstones buried deep inside the ground.

Speaker 1 If I take twenty thousand breaths a day,

Speaker 1 and so do you, and everyone else,

Speaker 1 could we add them all up and divide by grains of sand?

Speaker 1 I smiled to myself as I started to walk,

Speaker 1 imagining some sort of cosmic cosmic accounting,

Speaker 1 an abacus made of stars,

Speaker 1 multiplying my breaths with the wing beats of bees.

Speaker 1 Being ankle-deep in sand,

Speaker 1 and so near the sound of the waves, did this to me.

Speaker 1 Made me feel

Speaker 1 very small, but absolutely in balance with the bigger universe.

Speaker 1 It felt like finding the red dot on the map.

Speaker 1 You are here.

Speaker 1 And here I was,

Speaker 1 striding slowly down the beach

Speaker 1 and closer to the water.

Speaker 1 If you've ever brought little ones to the beach or a swimming pool

Speaker 1 or even near to a sprinkler, you can see it in their faces.

Speaker 1 They are irresistibly drawn to it,

Speaker 1 and even in my grown-up body,

Speaker 1 I felt the same way.

Speaker 1 I couldn't wait to feel the water wash over my ankles,

Speaker 1 and I picked up my pace and splashed in.

Speaker 1 The cool waves rolling over my feet felt like

Speaker 1 relief.

Speaker 1 Like those videos of folks working

Speaker 1 to help a sea turtle who's been flipped onto his back.

Speaker 1 They get him right side up again,

Speaker 1 and you watch him push and paddle closer to the water until he slips all the way in

Speaker 1 and it washes over his shell.

Speaker 1 And you think,

Speaker 1 what a relief it must have been,

Speaker 1 how good it must have felt

Speaker 1 to come home.

Speaker 1 I started to walk through the shallows,

Speaker 1 sometimes stepping back onto the just damp sand,

Speaker 1 and sometimes getting wet up to my knees.

Speaker 1 I watched a time step of long-legged sandpipers racing along the water,

Speaker 1 chasing each wave back as it rolled out, and running from the next rolling in.

Speaker 1 They had tall, jointed legs

Speaker 1 and long pointed bills for digging in the sand.

Speaker 1 And I used to mistake them for piping plovers.

Speaker 1 Alliterative birds. They were plumper and paler

Speaker 1 and short-billed, and a rare sight on this beach.

Speaker 1 There were only a few people walking,

Speaker 1 and almost no one sat up in the sand yet.

Speaker 1 I enjoyed the solitude,

Speaker 1 and stopped frequently to turn over stones and shells with my toes.

Speaker 1 I carried some into the water,

Speaker 1 and rinsed the sand from them in my hands,

Speaker 1 noticing the iridescent insides of the shells

Speaker 1 and the tiny specks of color in the rocks.

Speaker 1 I found a few very good skipping stones,

Speaker 1 broad and smooth and flat.

Speaker 1 And while most of them went straight in with a plop,

Speaker 1 the last one skipped across the surface four times before sinking in.

Speaker 1 I wondered how many times had the same flat stones been cast out

Speaker 1 and washed back up

Speaker 1 to be scooped out of the surf and skipped again.

Speaker 1 Maybe the one I threw had been last skipped by someone a hundred years ago

Speaker 1 who also liked to get up early and walk walk before the sand got hot.

Speaker 1 And maybe they had wondered about the hands that threw it another hundred years before.

Speaker 1 Ahead of me, a black dog with shining wet fur sat at its owner's feet.

Speaker 1 Its tail thumping into the sand excitedly, begging for a stick to be thrown into the water.

Speaker 1 The owner lifted it high in an arc overhead, like they were casting a fishing line,

Speaker 1 and threw it far out

Speaker 1 into the waves.

Speaker 1 The dog darted, keen on its mission, and swam for what I guessed was the twentieth time this morning to retrieve it.

Speaker 1 I watched as the dog caught up the stick and turned in the water,

Speaker 1 paddling to the shore.

Speaker 1 His muzzle was stark white against his black fur

Speaker 1 and the sight of his sweet older face made me put my hand on my heart.

Speaker 1 A sudden clench of emotion.

Speaker 1 He wouldn't always be able to do this.

Speaker 1 But today he could.

Speaker 1 And his person was here for it.

Speaker 1 I started to notice a few umbrellas propped in the sand,

Speaker 1 folding chairs being wrestled into place,

Speaker 1 towels unfurled like tablecloths.

Speaker 1 The sun was rising higher,

Speaker 1 and the humid air was heating up quickly.

Speaker 1 I was ready for my swim, so I turned and began walking back in the direction I had come.

Speaker 1 I passed a giant piece of driftwood.

Speaker 1 It was bleached white from the sun,

Speaker 1 gnarled and dry,

Speaker 1 but still recognizably part of a tree

Speaker 1 maybe it had been struck by lightning

Speaker 1 or just snapped by strong winds and sent into the water

Speaker 1 it had washed up here

Speaker 1 who knows how many years ago

Speaker 1 and was sort of a local landmark

Speaker 1 I'd seen high school students posing for pictures in front of it,

Speaker 1 and it was depicted in a watercolor in the gallery up the street.

Speaker 1 Sometimes people left shells balanced on it,

Speaker 1 and once I'd seen a team of folks

Speaker 1 building a huge sandcastle,

Speaker 1 incorporating it into the moat.

Speaker 1 I started the climb

Speaker 1 up toward my car,

Speaker 1 already thinking of the jug of cold water

Speaker 1 and spreading my towel out in the sand.

Speaker 1 It was just a simple beach walk.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 how many places I'd already been this morning.

Speaker 1 Walk

Speaker 1 Sometimes I went in the afternoon

Speaker 1 or

Speaker 1 just before sunset.

Speaker 1 It depended on the day,

Speaker 1 on the heat, on the sun,

Speaker 1 and how many other people might be walking.

Speaker 1 Today, I woke up early

Speaker 1 and decided that

Speaker 1 before I got tangled up

Speaker 1 in any other ideas

Speaker 1 in chores or what to do list,

Speaker 1 I'd just go.

Speaker 1 It was something a friend of mine used to say,

Speaker 1 When in doubt,

Speaker 1 do what you are going to do first.

Speaker 1 A suggestion to trust your instincts and not overthink.

Speaker 1 So I trusted mine.

Speaker 1 I put my swimsuit on, with shorts and a tank top,

Speaker 1 and grabbed a few beach towels

Speaker 1 and the jug I took on hikes filled with ice water

Speaker 1 and drove out to the beach.

Speaker 1 The lot was a long, narrow space

Speaker 1 that would be full of cars and scooters and bikes by midday.

Speaker 1 But this early, there were only a few others parked there.

Speaker 1 I left most of my things in my car,

Speaker 1 thinking that

Speaker 1 I'd take a long walk, then come back here before a swim.

Speaker 1 I even left my flip flops in the footwell of the car.

Speaker 1 As soon as I stepped out onto the sand,

Speaker 1 I wanted to be barefoot.

Speaker 1 It was cool under my soles

Speaker 1 and damp, just the right texture to make a castle with.

Speaker 1 The sun was still low on the horizon.

Speaker 1 Its rays hadn't had a chance yet

Speaker 1 to heat up all those many grains of sand.

Speaker 1 I stood still,

Speaker 1 feeling it shift beneath me,

Speaker 1 wondering

Speaker 1 just how many there might be on a beach like this.

Speaker 1 I'd read once

Speaker 1 that our brains run on 86 billion neurons,

Speaker 1 that there are two hundred billion trillion stars in the observable universe

Speaker 1 and I thought too about

Speaker 1 the number of blades of grass

Speaker 1 of feathers of pounds of salt in the ocean

Speaker 1 of gemstones buried deep inside the ground

Speaker 1 If I take twenty thousand breaths a day,

Speaker 1 and so do you

Speaker 1 and everyone else,

Speaker 1 could we add them all up and divide by grains of sand?

Speaker 1 I smiled at myself as I started to walk,

Speaker 1 imagining some sort of cosmic accounting,

Speaker 1 An abacus made of stars,

Speaker 1 multiplying my breaths with the wing beats of bees.

Speaker 1 Being ankle deep in sand

Speaker 1 and so near the sound of the waves did this to me.

Speaker 1 Made me feel

Speaker 1 very small,

Speaker 1 but absolutely in balance with the bigger universe.

Speaker 1 It felt like finding the red dot on the map.

Speaker 1 You are here.

Speaker 1 And here I was,

Speaker 1 striding slowly down the beach

Speaker 1 and closer to the water.

Speaker 1 If you've ever brought little ones to the beach

Speaker 1 or swimming pool or

Speaker 1 even near to a sprinkler,

Speaker 1 you can see it in their faces.

Speaker 1 They are irresistibly drawn to it.

Speaker 1 And even in my grown-up body,

Speaker 1 I felt the same way.

Speaker 1 I couldn't wait to feel the water

Speaker 1 wash over my ankles.

Speaker 1 and I picked up my pace

Speaker 1 and splashed in.

Speaker 1 The cool waves

Speaker 1 rolling over my feet

Speaker 1 felt like relief

Speaker 1 like those videos of folks

Speaker 1 working

Speaker 1 to help a sea turtle

Speaker 1 who's been flipped on his back

Speaker 1 They get him right side up again

Speaker 1 and you watch him push and paddle closer to the water

Speaker 1 until he slips all the way in

Speaker 1 and it washes over his shell

Speaker 1 And you think what a relief it must have been

Speaker 1 How good it must have felt

Speaker 1 to come home.

Speaker 1 I started to walk through the shallows,

Speaker 1 sometimes stepping back onto the just damp sand,

Speaker 1 and sometimes getting wet up to my knees.

Speaker 1 I watched a time step of long-legged sandpipers racing along the water,

Speaker 1 chasing each wave back as it rolled out

Speaker 1 and running from the next rolling in.

Speaker 1 They had tall jointed legs

Speaker 1 and long pointed bills for digging in the sand.

Speaker 1 And I used to mistake them for piping plovers.

Speaker 1 Alliterative birds they were plumper and paler

Speaker 1 and short-billed and a rare sight on this beach.

Speaker 1 There were only a few people walking

Speaker 1 and almost no one set up in the sand yet.

Speaker 1 I enjoyed the solitude

Speaker 1 and stopped frequently to turn over stones and shells with my toes.

Speaker 1 I carried some into the water

Speaker 1 and rinsed the sand from them in my hands,

Speaker 1 noticing the iridescent insides of the shells

Speaker 1 and the tiny specks of color in the rocks.

Speaker 1 I found a few

Speaker 1 very good skipping stones,

Speaker 1 broad and smooth and flat

Speaker 1 And while most of them went straight in with a plop

Speaker 1 the last one skipped across the surface four times before sinking in

Speaker 1 How many times had the same flat stones been cast out

Speaker 1 and washed back up

Speaker 1 to be scooped out of the surf and skipped again?

Speaker 1 Maybe the one I threw had last been skipped by someone a hundred years ago

Speaker 1 who also liked to get up early

Speaker 1 and walk before the sand got hot.

Speaker 1 And maybe

Speaker 1 they had wondered about the hands that threw it another hundred years before.

Speaker 1 Ahead of me,

Speaker 1 a black dog with shining wet fur

Speaker 1 sat at its owner's feet,

Speaker 1 its tail thumping into the sand excitedly,

Speaker 1 begging for a stick to be thrown back into the water.

Speaker 1 The owner lifted it high in an arc overhead,

Speaker 1 like they were casting a fishing line,

Speaker 1 and threw it far out into the waves.

Speaker 1 The dog darted,

Speaker 1 keen on its mission, and swam for

Speaker 1 what I guessed was the twentieth time this morning to retrieve it.

Speaker 1 I watched as the dog caught up the stick

Speaker 1 and turned in the water, paddling to the shore.

Speaker 1 His muzzle was stark white against his black fur,

Speaker 1 and the sight of his sweet, older face

Speaker 1 made me clap a hand over my heart.

Speaker 1 A sudden clench of emotion.

Speaker 1 He wouldn't always be able to do this.

Speaker 1 But today he could.

Speaker 1 And his person was here for it.

Speaker 1 I started to notice a few umbrellas propped in the sand,

Speaker 1 folding chairs being wrestled into place,

Speaker 1 towels unfurled like tablecloths.

Speaker 1 The sun was rising higher,

Speaker 1 and the humid air was heating up quickly.

Speaker 1 I was ready for my swim,

Speaker 1 so I turned

Speaker 1 and began walking back in the direction I had come.

Speaker 1 I passed a giant piece of driftwood.

Speaker 1 It was bleached white from the sun,

Speaker 1 gnarled and dry,

Speaker 1 but still recognizably part of a tree.

Speaker 1 Maybe it had been struck by lightning,

Speaker 1 or just snapped by strong winds and sent into the water.

Speaker 1 It had washed up here

Speaker 1 who knows

Speaker 1 how many years ago now

Speaker 1 and was sort of a local landmark.

Speaker 1 I'd seen high school students posing for pictures in front of it,

Speaker 1 and it was depicted in a watercolor in the gallery up the street.

Speaker 1 Sometimes people left shells balanced on it.

Speaker 1 And once I'd seen a team of folks building a huge sand castle,

Speaker 1 incorporating it into the moat.

Speaker 1 I started the climb up toward my car,

Speaker 1 already thinking of the jug of cold water,

Speaker 1 and spreading my towel out in the sand.

Speaker 1 It was just a simple beach walk,

Speaker 1 but

Speaker 1 how many places I'd already been this morning,

Speaker 1 sweet dreams.