Gift from the Sea
Gift from the Sea
In this unique & beloved classic & elegant, clear & lyrical-Anne Morrow Lindbergh shares her meditations on youth & age, love & marriage, peace, solitude & contentment as they sell them for a brief vacation by the sea. Inspired by the shells & bring on shore Lindbergh’s musings on the shape of a woman’s life a new understanding of men & women in every stage of life. A mother of five children, a celebrated writer & pioneer aviator throws Lindbergh an unsentimental look at the trappings of modernity that threaten into overwhelm us: the time-saving devices into simplify rather than the multiple commitments that are more difficult from our families . And by recording her thoughts during a brief escape
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A Roadmap for One’s Life Journey,
After watching _The Spirit of St. Louis_ one afternoon, my boyfriend (who is also a pilot) told me that Anne Morrow Lindbergh had written a book, which, as he was told, “every woman should read.” The next time I went to his house, _Gift from the Sea_ was waiting for me.
What amazed me about this book was its timeliness, or should I say, timelessness. That a middle-aged Caucasian woman, writing during the 50′s, could strike such a deeply-felt chord of sisterhood with me, a 30-something African-American woman living at the brink of a new millennium, is truly the mark of a gifted writer. We “enlightened, liberated” women of the year 2000 think, with a fair amount of condescension, that we have “progressed” so much from that time period. And yet, the issues Mrs. Lindbergh addressed are still very much with us today: how does a woman fulfill the roles of citizen, artist, wife/partner, mother, career person, friend, sibling/relative, and balance all of that with the time and self-commitment for spiritual/emotional nurturing?
I have a quote from this precious gift posted on the wall at my workstation; it is a state of being I seek as a humble pilgrim on life’s journey:
“…I want first of all…to be at peace with myself. I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central core to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can. I want, in fact – to borrow from the language of the saints – to live “in grace” as much of the time as possible…By grace I mean an inner harmony, essentially spiritual, which can be translated into outward harmony…I would like to achieve a state of inner spiritual grace from which I could function and give as I was meant to in the eye of God…”
This is a must read for women everywhere!
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|Every page is a delicious retreat, a vacation for the soul.,
Not a book to race through! To be read slowly, alone, savored, re-read, meditated and mused on, with contentment. And if you can’t find contentment, it will find you — in Anne’s words — her gift from the sea.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s thoughts are woven around her impressions gathered from her ocean-side stay away from society and civilization — from people and things — from noise and confusion — from musts and don’ts.
What Anne discovers in her solitude at the beach, she offers to you the reader by way of her journal. The tiny shells she held and studied provide lessons to her and all of us.
Anne’s musings about life, relationships, love, busy-ness, aging, simplicity and solitude came to me several years ago at a time I was re-assessing many things in my life. Like a grace, her words soothed me and helped me quiet my turbulent thoughts, and to gather my inmost spirit to bind the wounds, to fill myself with the good already all around me and to go forward.
I realized I could slow down my pace, choose my own path, ask for and expect some peace and quiet and harmony, because these gifts are there for all of us to enhance our lives.
Although written from a woman’s perspective, Anne’s gift from the sea is for all of us who hunger for the slower pace, the garden path, the sanctity in God’s every creation down to the intricate sea shell in Anne’s hand as she coddles it, examines its artistic swirls and ridges and colors, and listens to the lessons — the homilies — within its delicate curves.
A keeper of a book. You’ll go back to this one, like to a favorite vacation hideaway or armchair by the fireside or corner in the garden under the stars. It’ll be an old friend, a comfort and blessing.
Take a deep breath……Can you just smell the salty tang of those soft breezes off the ocean
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