Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - People of the Willows (Premium)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi, Thomas here. You're listening to a preview episode. You can enjoy the entire story tonight by subscribing to our supporters' feed. There you'll get access to the entire back catalogue, bonus episodes, and more, and it's all completely ad-free. Click the link below to learn more and thank you so so much. Me and the team really appreciate your support. You stand at the entrance of an old stone building. Vines, crisscross along the outer walls. No one has been here for a long time, you think. You approach the set of enormous double doors at the entrance. The finely polished bohagini seems more ancient than time itself.

Starting point is 00:01:12 The panels of the doors are covered from top to bottom, in carvings of human exploration and endeavor. You reach for the tarnished brass handle and pause briefly as your eyes are drawn to the panel near your hand. A carved scene scrolls out across the wood from left to right. Men wearing long feathered hats and thick bison hides, crouch low in the grass. Bowls at the ready, as a herd of bison graces nearby.

Starting point is 00:01:55 As the scene continues, the men are crossing a river in little round boats, like tea cups, carving in the water. Across the river is a field of mixed crops. Women with long dresses and braided hair are at work, loading the harvest on small sweats. the harvest on of the carving. With a push on the door handle, the doors wings open gently with a soft creek.

Starting point is 00:02:57 You pass through the doorway into the foyer of a resplendent library. The floor is tiled in green and white marble and polished to a shining finish. The silhouette of your reflection in the floor is embroidered with a million spots of light. You look up to see a phenomenal crystal chandelier sparkling far above your head. Across the room, between two curving staircases is a sign. You step closer to read the elegant gold script. It says, Welcome to the Library of Time. Only the most curious souls can find this place. Each and every book here connects to a different time and place. While in the past you will neither be seen

Starting point is 00:04:09 nor heard. You cannot change the past after all you can only learn from it and learn you shall. You turn to the left and descend the staircase down one floor. With each step down, you feel yourself relaxing as the stillness of the library and the smell of old books around you. When you reach the next floor, rows of bookshelves stretch out in all directions. You pick an aisle to walk down and absolutely run your fingers across the spines of the book as you pass. The feel of one book causes you to stop. You pull it down from the shelf. The book is bound in raw hide and painted with simple figures in black and

Starting point is 00:05:16 red. At the center of the cover is a wooden inlay in the shape of three plants growing upon one another, a squash, a climbing beam, and a stalk of maze. Beneath the inlay is a title written in intricate beadwork, 1634. You tuck the book under one arm and walk toward a nearby sitting area. A bench made of finished timber with thick brown cushions sits next to a side table in the shape of an animal skin drum. On top of the side table is a lamp designed to look like a stock of maize with the light bulbs sticking out like a corn cob. You sit with the book in your lap and take a moment to clear your mind. The sound of your breathing rises and falls as you settle into the cushions. You open the book and begin to read.

Starting point is 00:06:36 The Hidatsa are a suing speaking people who settled in the Missouri River Valley of North Dakota sometime in the 15th or 16th century. At the junction of the Missouri and Knife Rivers, they built villages and quickly became a solid link in the trade routes stretching across North America. It was at one such village where the famed Lewis and Clark expedition discovered a young show show-need woman named Bird Woman. You may know her as Chicago Wea. But before that land became North Dakota, before the rivers changed their names, it was just the heart of everything that is. Boom!

Starting point is 00:07:34 And the Hedotsa were the people of the Willows. You stop reading for a moment and lay your head back. Your eyes closed as you imagine the life of the Hidatsa people. Your breath moves slowly in and out. And you begin to slip backwards through the streams of time. through the streams of time.

Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - People of the Willows (Premium)

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