Gift from the Sea

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Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) is a charity that works to protect whales and dolphins. Their slogan is, “ A world where every whale and dolphin is safe and free,” which can be found on lots of the available merchandise. One of WDC’s movements allows you to symbolically adopt one of the protected dolphins that can be found in areas off the British coast. These individuals face oil, gas and fishing gear entanglement threats (among others). Gift from the Sea is a quiet book of reflections and meditations written during and after a period of time spent at the Florida seashore (on Captiva Island on the West Coast). Each chapter takes its inspiration from a different shell the author finds along the beach. The book contains Lindbergh’s thoughts on feminism, the environment, motherhood, marriage, work, love, independence, and, more broadly, how we manage our time and our lives. When one is a stranger to one's self then one is a estranged from others too. If one is out of touch with oneself, then one cannot touch others". Anne Morrow Lindbergh There is a foreword by her youngest daughter Reeve Lindbergh. The audiobook is a republication of the original with an afterword from the author 20 years after the first publication in 1955.

I hate to say it, because so many women just L.O.V.E. this book, but it just didn't do much for me. There were definitely some lovely moments here, but much of it was cliched platitudes, and sounded pretty stale and New Age-y to me. It's the kind of stuff that sounds pretty wise, but it's hard to figure out what it really means. There may be some personality issues as well. I'm pretty social. I like hanging out with people. I do enjoy my alone time (which I spend reading, hello), but I'm just not desperate for it like more introverted types often are. This book is definitely very supportive of introverts, but that was a little lost on me. I actually like bustle. I don't like silence and quiet (I mean, that's what ipods were invented for!). I'm tired of preachy introverts suggesting that this means I'm not contemplative! Additionally, as n ot everyone likes to lounge in the sun, we’ve included a couple of eco-friendly gift ideas for outdoorsy people who won’t be found on the beach: Ocean-Friendly Sunscreen – This environmentally friendly sunscreen doesn’t contain coral-hurting chemicals. Every diver and beachgoer should have this eco-friendly product.Maybe I am at the wrong time in my life for this book - it's quite possible. Being a married but childless lawyer, I don't spend a lot of time worrying about "giving too much of myself." This is more a (perfectly legit) concern of mothers and homemakers. The problem as Lindbergh sees it is “how to remain whole in the midst of the distractions of life.”

Sometimes an eco-friendly gift can actually have a much wider impact than a single physical gift. For a gift that quite literally keeps on giving, why not adopt a marine animal for your partner, friend or colleague? I thought carefully about whether my strongly adverse feelings about this book were actually warranted or not. I have decided that there is a middle ground I must take here. This stylish linen cosmetic bag is both eye-catching and well designed to be the perfect solution for storing and organising beauty essentials. Sourced from Sea Shed, based in St Ives, each showcases a calming sea blue nautical design. They’re also hand-loomed and made from premium, eco-friendly linen with a linen-lined interior and brass zip. Red Sails & Pilchards With great wisdom and insight Lindbergh describes the shifting shapes of relationships and marriage, presenting a vision of life as it is lived in an enduring and evolving partnership. A groundbreaking, best-selling work when it was originally published in 1955, Gift from the Sea continues to be discovered by new generations of readers. With a new introduction by Lindbergh’s daughter Reeve, this fiftieth-anniversary edition will give those who are revisiting the book and those who are coming upon it for the first time fresh insight into the life of this remarkable woman.The people I actually recommend this to are those who are young traditionalists. I can see how a young mother might gain much wisdom from this. Or a person just starting out in life, maybe in a dorm somewhere, or maybe someone young who has just graduated college.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh writes of being a woman in America in the fifties. She compares different stages of marriage to different shells. The writing is beautiful, poignant, wise and the message clear. It is prose poetry. She speaks of the need for simplification in a world cluttered with obligations and gadgets. She speaks of what can be gained by allowing one to withdraw and find inner solace within one's self. How creativity replenishes the soul. She quotes among others John Donne, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Rainer Maria Rilke, W.B. Yeats and William Blake. It’s basically about taking time outs from your life to find your “center”, living with less stuff and fewer distractions and experiencing relationships in the present rather than dwelling on how great they were in the past or worrying about what may happen in the future. All sound advice, if you ask me. Solar-Powered Lantern– These devices are ideal great for camping and other outdoor adventures. We love this collapsible option. On p. 42 I found a bookmark. As far as my wife's grandmother got, apparently. It was a business reply card to the Doubleday Book Shop, Bishop's Corner, West Hartford, CT. (Open until 6 p.m.) I found this audio in the bag I keep in the car. It's a nonfiction account of one woman’s ruminations on life while she escapes to a beach cottage for a few weeks. This was written in the 50's but much of it still feels eerily current and will resonate most with introverts.

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I also really liked how she described the different stages of marriage. My favorite quote from this read-through was:

From November 22 – 26, dive into eco-friendly gifts for your favorite ocean lover or best dive buddy – a win for you and the ocean blue! Excludes sale items. ANNIVERSARY EDITION • With meditations on youth and age, love and marriage, peace, solitude, and contentment, here is an inimitable classic that guides us to find a space for contemplation and creativity in our own lives. Book Genre: Autobiography, Biography, Biography Memoir, Classics, Essays, Inspirational, Memoir, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Self Help, Spirituality, Writing Tote Bag– A tote bag can replace single-use plastic bags for carrying groceries and can also be used for everyday essentials. One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can only collect a few. One moon shell is more impressive than three. There is only one moon in the sky.”

Scrounging around for a short book this morning, I came across this on the hallway bookshelf. Long ago, my great aunt had it on her table. I remember her telling me how wonderful it was. But this is not her copy. I opened it. The signature inside was my wife's grandmother's. What looks to be a first edition from 1955. However, if you are living the hard life right now, this book still might not be worth the read, because if you are truly in a rough spot, battling the demons of life, this may just make you bitter that some lady with a rich social life and ample resources is trying to tell you how to live yours. That said, it's always worth a shot to read and gain insight into something, so see how it strikes you. To give Ms. Lindbergh, who I have much respect for, the maximum amount of credit, these ideas might be cliches because this book is just that popular. If so, good for her. Life must have been so simple then. The good old I-Like-Ike days, after the (World) war and before the (Vietnam) war. I started to read. At first, it seemed similar to Walden--all about simplicity, only in this case a well-to-do suburbanite woman on an unnamed beach vs. a middle-aged man slash pencil maker on a pond named Walden. In this inimitable, beloved classic—graceful, lucid and lyrical—Anne Morrow Lindbergh shares her meditations on youth and age; love and marriage; peace, solitude and contentment as she set them down during a brief vacation by the sea. Drawing inspiration from the shells on the shore, Lindbergh’s musings on the shape of a woman’s life bring new understanding to both men and women at any stage of life. A mother of five, an acclaimed writer and a pioneering aviator, Lindbergh casts an unsentimental eye on the trappings of modernity that threaten to overwhelm us: the time-saving gadgets that complicate rather than simplify, the multiple commitments that take us from our families. And by recording her thoughts during a brief escape from everyday demands, she helps readers find a space for contemplation and creativity within their own lives.