Gift from the Sea I - a book review

Gift from the Sea was written by Anne Morrow Lindbergh in 1955 and has been reprinted many times since then! If you haven’t picked this book up or seen it in your local bookshop, seek it out. 

It is a promisingly fresh read, one that has stood the test of time and rightly so because it deals with the very real struggles of modern life, that has become the lifestyle that we are constantly juggling with. 

The role of women in the last century has transformed considerably. As we know there is always a reaction to an action, there is always a new reality being created with any real change. This reality is what we have to deal with, without really knowing its consequences. I think that in many ways feminism (the first waves at least, not what we label as feminism today) paved the way to let us see our own worth and respect our own roles as women; yet in many ways it did not teach us how to deal with the consequences, how to adapt. How could it? How could it have foreseen what was to come? Nevertheless we are dealing with them in a very real way today and these consequences need to be realised. In having this freedom, we also have more choices to make and we also have to realise that we cannot have it all - the role and a woman’s role in the family has changed, it is all a choice, all what one really wants. 

This is my belief. I also believe that it is hard, it can be very hard at times, yet these are choices that in many ways we all must make. 

But now let us get to the Gift of the Sea, which Emma Thompson has called ‘Quietly powerful and a great help. Glorious’. There is certainly a lot that is glorious as well as magical about the seaside. There is also a lot that we can learn from being in nature. 

Every word is a soft or as tingling as the breeze itself, every word as soothing as it. Take it in and see what rings true to you. 

“I began these pages for myself, in order to think out my own particular pattern of living, my own individual balance of life, work and human relationships.”  

This is in many ways an individual story yet it is also a collective one - our story. 

The Beach 

“The beach is not the place to work; to read, write or think… at least not at first.” 

At first all one needs to do is take the beach in - see it for its beauty, its expanse, its gifts. There are so many things it gives freely and in others it takes away with the coming and going of tides.

Then you can start to see, to think, to breathe it in. To be the beach, to have inside of you some of its patience. 

Channelled Whelk 

The whelk shell is a snail’s house; so many shells are. As we pick them up we hardly think about this. There is something so beautiful about a simple, bare shell. Look at its form, its colour and think about your own shell. What is yours made of? What is yours like? What shape does your life take? What is your life filled by? 

“I am seeking perhaps what Socrates asked for in the prayer from the Phaedrus when he said, ‘May the outward and inward man be at one.” 

Perhaps we are all looking for some kind of balance, even as life has its ups and downs. 

How simple is our life? 

How full is it? 

How meaningful is it? 

How many tensions pull and push in our life? 

How many distractions do we live with? 

There is no one answer as to how to balance life - it is quite personal and it also changes with the tides of one’s life. We cannot relinquish all responsibility, nor can we always be subservient to them. 

Beach living teaches many things, among them: the art of shedding, the importance of shelter and living simplistically. So, we must look at the outside of a shell, but most importantly at the inside to find an answer.   

Moon Shell 

This is a round, full and glossy shell. 

“How wonderful are islands! Islands in space, like this one I have come to, ringed about by miles of water, linked by no bridges, no cables, no telephones. An island from the world and the world’s life. Islands in time, like this short vacation of mine. The past and the future are cut off; only the present remains. Existence in the present gives island living an extreme vividness and purity. ... John Donne said that ‘No man is an island’. I feel we are all islands - in a common sea.” 

This is a lovely thought, as in many ways we are all alone. Yet at least we are all together in that. We usually avoid being alone, but how about embracing it? Facing it? What if we recognised how we are alone and how we are with others, together with others? 

Being alone and also at times seeking to be alone means that we are comfortable with ourselves - we accept ourselves. Many times we want our pitchers to be full to the brim, and at times overflowing yet we also need the time to appreciate this happening, we need the time to say no and stop the momentum if it’s too much. We do need this time alone to analyse our life and see how things are going - this solitude may be some time every day, every month, every few months, a vacation once a year. Time to yourself is worth finding, you have to find your own why, which is your own worth. This is your chance to find that room of one’s own! 

“To the possession of the self the way is inward, says Plotinus. The cell of self-knowledge is the stall in which the pilgrim must be reborn, says St Catherine of Siena.”  

Identify those elements which do not allow you to look inward, notice the interferences and all those things in our day-to-day life that are noise, pulling us away from this time of looking within. 

We might not always have an island to remind us of the ways of island life, yet we can always carry a reminder - a shell, a scent, a pebble… 

Double-Sunrise 

This is a rare kind of shell. 

There is a special kind of calm that the salty sea air imbues. Life is slower, paced on the beach, on an island. This gives much space for our creative side. 

How do we give of ourselves creatively? 

How do we enjoy expressing our creativity? 

How can we retrieve our creativity if we have lost it along the way? 

Different elements of life, our life cannot be continuous, we are built to adapt and accept change - as hard as it may be. We may experience this in different ways in all spheres: from our love, to our family, to work life, to keeping our creative spirit alive. 

“The pure relationship is limited, in space and in time.” 

Yet we must also remember that, 

“Validity need have no relation to time, to duration, to continuity. It is another plane, judged by other standards. It relates to the actual moment in time and place. The sunrise shell has the eternal validity of all beautiful and fleeting things.” 

The key is to be aware and grateful for every moment, every person, every being in your life and all the treasures that come with them all. 

To be continued…