A few months ago this Picky Partner made a difficult journey to Texas to say goodbye to a woman I had met just months earlier. Being a great lover of books, and several hours between flights, I was looking forward to the opportunity to read as much as I could. Loaded down with a laptop, 8 books {why 8 I will never know), my favorite jewelry, the carryon was a total beast! When asked to check it due to the weight, I pulled a fast one and ripped a Longchamp tote from my purse and informed them I would need to take a few things out. With a smile at my secretly stashed extra tote, now filled with the necessaties {books}, I boarded the plane.
A GIFT FROM THE SEA: by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
One of the first books pulled out of the tote was Anne Morrow Lindberg's A Gift From the Sea. This treasured book was handed down to me by my grandmother. I had read it as a teenager, but the words did not reach me then as they did now. I was captivated by the things the author shared about her life and what she had learned along the way. The author shared with such insight, the lessons and questions about being a woman in todays world.
"How to remain whole in the midst of the distractions of life..... there is no easy answer, no complete answer." {page 29}
Lindgerg gives us a few of the clues she found along the way on her memorable trip to the beach.
"Solitude, says the moon shell. Every person, especially every woman, should be alone sometime during the year, some part of each week, each day. How revolutionary that sounds and how impossible of attainment." {page 48}
"A woman must come of age by herself. This is the essence of "coming of age"-to learn how to stand alone.....She must try her true center to alone....as a prelude to any "two solitudes" relationship, follow the advice of the poet to become "world to oneself for another's sake."
The author stated that when we start at the center of ourselves, "we discover something worthwhile extending toward the perphiphant of the circle. We find again some of the joy in the now, some of the peace in the here, some of the love in me and thee which go to make the kingdom of heaven on earth." As the waves echoed behind her, the author recalls the lessons learned and knows in her heart there are more shells to find. This is just the beginning.
My trip to Texas might not have been as relaxing as one to the beach, but the lessons along the way are ones I will not soon forget. I learned so much about myself and feel stronger for taking the chance and feel blessed to have had the experience.
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