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, choice-less as a beach — waiting for a gift from the sea.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh has left us one of the greatest gifts in A Gift from the Sea; her meditations on life while on vacation by the sea. Each page is awash in intelligence and beauty from the depths of her individual and societal contemplation. Mrs. Lindbergh has left us the greatest gift that can be left to those who will come after us: knowledge. Knowledge is like a pearl of the sea, hard, strong, and incredibly precious. Lindbergh leaves us not only this precious gem, but the priceless record of a life well lived.
Her book was recommended to me by a co-worker who claimed I would love it. She was more than correct, as I now claim it as the most beautiful book I have read to date. The book’s beauty transcends it’s 1955 copyright date, as she writes so simply on our humanity.
I was recently sitting in a Starbucks in Huntsville, AL with a dear friend while visiting her family. We were both focused on individual projects; she was fine-tuning a graduate school paper and I was reading and contemplating Gift from the Sea. We were interrupted by a woman who couldn’t contain her joy at my reading Mrs. Lindbergh’s book. She had read it many years previously. There in the small bustling Starbucks, happiness was found as we discussed the various seasons of life, and the excruciatingly beautiful words of wisdom from Mrs. Lindbergh. The simplicity and meaning of this shared experience rang clear, all I must do now is patiently accept gifts from the sea.
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