How Can I Sleep? (The Traveler's Dilemma)

All photos shot in Southeast Alaska and Haida Gwaii on a Lindblad-National Geographic expedition.

How Can I Sleep? (The Traveler's Dilemma)

How can I sleep when I know what wildness is out there?
When it walks and runs, swims and flies right outside my door?
When waves crash and branches sway,
And the moon glows evermore?

How can I sleep when I've heard glaciers calve?
Native tales spanning time and space?
Do I turn off the lights when whales are near?
Memories I could never replace.

How can I sleep when sweet cedar fills the air?
While bears pace shore lines and streams?
Miss these moments,
And my soul will surely split at the seams.

And how can I sleep when the fresh chill of icebergs could linger on my hands?
There are more bergs out there.
In other shapes, other sizes,
In other bays, other fjords, and other lands.

But if I must sleep.
If I have absolutely given the day my all,
If my eyelids are like anchors, my muscles ache to the bone,
If I absolutely must lay down to sleep,
Then let me dream of the wildness.
Let me dream deep, dream well and dream bright.
When I wake a new wildness will be there,
And I will cherish the sight.

By Marc Cappelletti, Director of Expedition Development at Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic.