Bedside Manor: Journey to Bedside Manor

Bedside Manor

The sun is setting, night draws nigh and bed beckons. You long for sleep for rest will not come, for many cares chase away your dreams. Tossing and turning, watching the clock…the night passes and sleep never shows. If Insomnia blocks your way to Dreamland, then take a visit to the place where dreams come true, where no nightmares lurk, where no worries steal sleep, take a trip to….Bedside Manor.

Journey to Bedside Manor 

It’s very dark outside your window. The streetlamp that usually illuminates the road outside your house flickers and dies. Your room is plunged into blackness, your eyes strain to see. It’s so dark. If only just a little light would show, then perhaps you could sleep. Perhaps the tiny glow from that battery charger can light the way to your rest. Perhaps.

But it’s so dark. And you’re so tired that you can’t sleep. Awake and worried. You shut your eyes and try to dream.

There.

In the darkness of your wandering mind you see something. 

A sign. 

You’re on an empty dirt road in a big open field. Overhead is a full moon that casts the whole country in silver light. Just ahead you see a large wooden sign, you approach the sign slowly to read it. In curly shimmering script it reads, ‘Bedside Manor. Rest for every weary traveler. Shut eye guaranteed.’

Hmm.

You’ve heard a lot of shut eye promises in your time. Potions and pills, deep breathing and soft pillows, nightlights and no lights, tech off and slow books, warm milk and crackers, white noise and dark curtains. All have been tried and all have failed. Bedside Manor is just another broken guarantee.

But you’re so tired, you’re desperate for rest. What’s the harm in trying?

So you set off down the quiet road. The sound of crickets leading the way. You pass other signs, ‘Bedside Manor, this way,’ and ‘Bedside Manor around this bend.’ You walk faster now, eager to see this place, you hurry around a giant oak tree and pass through a thick stand of trees, the overhanging branches block out the night sky and for a few minutes it’s utterly dark. Under the cover of the trees you lose your nerve, you walk slower, straining to hear through the silence.

But then, a glimmer of light. You spy the yellow glow of candles through the woods. After a moment you emerge from the trees. At the edge of the road you spy one final sign. ‘Hot cocoa for visitors, Bedside Manor, just ahead.’ 

You walk up a straight path towards an enormous house---more of a grand manor than a simple house. The place is a big rectangle, two rows of evenly-space windows cover the front side of the manor house, and in the very center of the lower story, is a huge arched door. 

Along the path leading to the house are enormous trees, soft grass moss hanging from their branches give the place an eerie, sleepy feel. You begin to feel tired as you walk up the stone steps to the grand front entrance.

Timidly, you raise a fist and knock. Your hand barely makes a sound against the solid mass of the door. Just at your eye level you see tiny words carved into the wood, ‘Door open. Come inside and leave your cares behind.’

You turn the doorknob and the door creaks open, the sound echoes inside the massive house. Quickly you come in and shut the door behind you. Just inside the entryway is a fuzzy robe hanging on a hook and a pair of slippers beneath it. There’s a note attached to the robe, ‘put on the robe and the slippers and join everyone in the kitchen, we’re keeping the cocoa warm for you.’

The slippers are a perfect fit. The robe is in your favorite color. You sigh deeply and smile. Maybe you can fall asleep tonight after all.