Each summer, I read the ‘Gift from the Sea’ as I sit in my beach chair for a brief vacation. I let its message renew me as my time on the beach does, reminding me why I read it every year.
When I read ‘Gift from the Sea’ for the first time, I was surprised to see that it was published over 50 years ago. Its message by author Anne Morrow Lindbergh is as relevant today as it was then. The book is written as a series of essays about the author’s own life and its different seasons. Each essay is inspired by shells found on the beach during the author’s time spent alone at the beach. She learns from these ‘gifts from the sea.’
“The beach is not a place to work; to read, write, or to think.”The author brings her books, notebooks, and sharpened pencils, all with good intentions. But the spell of the waves takes over, and the body and mind relax.
I read ‘Gift from the Sea’ for the first time when my children were small. I was deep in the busyness of life with small children. The author’s message about this time of life she called ‘the oyster shell’ spoke to me as I tried to center myself with the whirlwind of life around me. To find quiet, inner stillness, and time for contemplation.
“It is an oyster, with small shells clinging to its humped back. Sprawling and uneven, it has the irregularity of something growing. It looks rather like the house of a big family, pushing out one addition after another to hold its teeming life – here a sleeping porch for the children, and there a veranda for the play-pen; here a garage for the extra car, and there a shed for the bicycles. It amuses me because it seems so much like my life at the moment, like most women’s lives in the middle years of marriage. It is untidy, spread out in all directions, heavily encrusted with accumulations….”
The author talks about the dangers of busyness without contemplating and how the fragmentation of our lives damages our souls.
And yes, ‘Gift from the Sea’ was written in the 1950s. How much more fragmented are our lives today?“not the life of simplicity but the life of multiplicity that the wise men warn us of. It leads not to unification but to fragmentation. It does not bring grace; it destroys the soul.”
My life is simpler now, yet it is not. I make it complicated with too many tasks and projects, as well as social media, grocery lists, and email. Is it a way to avoid the harder work of contemplation or creative work, such as writing or painting?
‘Gift from the Sea’ reminds me to slow down, embrace the time alone, and use it in a more meaningful way.
To learn from the gift from the sea.“The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach—waiting for a gift from the sea.”
“I find there is a quality to being alone that is incredibly precious. Life rushes back into the void, richer, more vivid, fuller than before.”
The later chapters referencing the Argonauta shell and its parallels were more relevant as I became an empty nester. My 'Changing Tides' collection reflects this, as I adjusted to our youngest son leaving for college. In ‘Gift from the Sea,’ Anne Morrow Lindbergh writes about the mental shift from the empty house to the adventure.
‘But with effort, patience, and a sympathetic and supportive husband, one wins through to the adventure of an ‘Argonauta.’ My husband and I even named our last home on the island of Maui “Argonauta.”
I began to use my time to paint, write, and travel.
I had time to read lots of books and go to yoga class. During those early ‘Argonauta’ years, we were able to go to Hawaii, the wine country, and New York, among other places. I took a cruise to Mexico with my mother, wrote this blog, and expanded my painting collections. I traveled with my empty-nester friends to Colorado and Nantucket.
This time of emptiness became a time of adventure, yet I still was able to use my creativity in my painting.
I still struggle with settling my brain and the need to achieve to use my free time for rest and quiet contemplation. However, I’m getting better at it. I no longer have to fill every waking moment but am finding that unscheduled time alone renews my creativity. When I get off my phone or computer long enough to allow it to present itself.
‘To quote my own words, ‘woman must come of age by herself – she must find her true center alone.” The lesson seems to need re-learning about every twenty years in a woman’s life.’
Her story parallels mine in more ways than I realized it would be when I read it for the first time so many years ago, and I continue to learn as I re-read the ‘Gift from the Sea‘ from my beach chair.
Sadly, my story parallels Anne Morrow Lindbergh's more than I would like. I related to her struggles with the busyness of raising small children. Later, the words about her later years struck a chord. Now, I would be thankful to just be an 'empty nester' as I lost my husband Joe suddenly in 2021. I'm a little afraid to re-read the later chapters of her book, but I know that her words will be uplifting and encouraging.
Want to read some of our travel guides inspired by that 'Arogauta' era? Or the art inspired by one of our ‘Arogauta adventures’?