Meeting: July 14, 2016

We had a delightful evening at Jo's house for our July meeting to discuss Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. We spent part of the time meandering around her backyard as we looked at her flower beds and simply enjoyed being outdoors. Ellen, Jo, Judy, Julie, Kathy, Linda, and Nanc attended.

Jo's yard and water view (Photo credit: Jo Smith)

As usual, our non-book discussion touched on education and the difficulty in fairly assessing teachers, especially as it relates to merit pay. Later, we would return to the yard to look at a bald eagle that flew into (and later out of) one of Jo's pine trees.

One of the eagles that hangs out in Jo's pine trees

First of all, what a lovely night we shared at Jo’s house indoor and out! Between enjoying Jo’s beautiful yard, the Eagles, the view and our visiting inside around delicious “tastes” that Jo offered, it was quite an entertaining evening being together to discuss Gift From The Sea and more.

I found Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s book very fulfilling. This book has been around for some time and it was fun to share our thoughts about it from our past and now in the present. Most of us had read it before but we seemed to enjoy it still several years later. 

Lindbergh's comparison of shells from the sea and stages in our lives was an interesting and refreshing view. I found her thoughts on “solitude” worthwhile. She expressed how the Moon shell 

“...will make me think, with your smooth circles winding inward to the tiny core, of the island I lived on for a few weeks. You will say to me “solitude”. You will remind me that I must try to be alone for part of each year, even a week or a few days; and be part of each day, even for an hour or a few minutes in order to keep my core, my center, my island quality". 

Women use to have alone time drawing, baking bread, sewing and making things that rewarded their “contemplative" and creative self, and how many more things we notice when alone and quiet. We may have alone time differently, but how important it is to make time to look at ourselves and nourish our souls in our own ways. Anne’s Lindbergh’s thoughts on middle age: 

“Perhaps middle age is, or should be, a period of shedding shells, the shell of ambition, the shell of material accumulations and possessions, the shell of the ego.” 

I felt her expression of middle age can be a time of renewal or second growth free to fulfill the neglected side of oneself. I feel the author wrote a book that provides a personal journey for each reader to stop for a bit and think about our lives, our selves and the relationships we hold. It seems timeless in some ways; a classic to be shared again and again. 

~ Linda Jenkins

First of all, I am impressed with the book because it was written in 1955 and the messages in the book still apply to our lives today. Anne Morrow Lindbergh writes with such deep conviction of what life is all about. 

I love her analogies: She not only compares life to seashells but to other examples we may be able to relate to………

“A good relationship has a pattern like a dance and is built on some of the same rules. The partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move confidently in the same pattern, intricate but gay and swift and free, like a country dance of Mozart’s.  To touch heavily would be to arrest the pattern and freeze the movement, to check the endlessly changing beauty of its unfolding.  There is not place here for the possessive clutch, the clinging arm, the heavy hand; only the barest touch in passing. Now arm in arm, now face to face, now back to back-it does not matter which. Because they know they are partners moving to the same rhythm, creating a pattern together, and being invisible nourished by it.” 

My favorite quote from the book used to be from the first chapter, last paragraph;  because I felt I needed to be reminded everyday to be a more patient person.

“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 the gift from the sea.”

But…….chapter seven is my new favorite because it speaks of simplicity.

“One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few. One moon shell is more impressive than three. There is only one moon in the sky. One double-sunrise in an event; six are a succession, like a week of school-days. Gradually one discards and keeps just the perfect specimen; not necessarily a rare shell, but a perfect one of its kind. One sets it apart by itself, ringed around by space—like the island." 

I would have to copy the entire book to catch all of the important messages she gives us……..I love this book! 

~ Judy Lee

Admittedly, I have trouble connecting with inspirational books.  In this case, maybe the fact that both Charles and Anne Lindbergh had extramarital affairs made me feel a bit less open to hearing what she was saying. I enjoyed her use of a seashell in the first chapter to relate to life, but as she continued to do so it began to feel a bit contrived.  

I did agree with much of which she wrote, including the value of patience, understanding that relationships are always evolving, the importance of having balance in your life, the usefulness of simplicity of living, and making solitude a priority.

"The world today does not understand, in either man or woman, the need to be alone. How inexplicable it seems. Anything else will be accepted as a better excuse. If one sets aside time for a business appointment, a trip to the hairdresser, a social engagement, or a shopping expedition, that time is accepted as inviolable. But if one says: I cannot come because that is my hour to be alone, one is considered rude, egotistical, or strange. What a commentary on our civilization, when being alone is considered suspect; when one has to apologize for it, make excuses, hide the fact one practices it — like a secret vice."

Perhaps I need to read these types of books in small doses, so I have time to reflect on each snippet, rather than plowing through the whole book.

~ Nancy French

August meeting:

Book: Deep Water Passage by Ann Linnea

Location: Ellen's

Date: Thursday, August 11, 2016

Time: 6:30pm

Upcoming meetings:

September 8, 2016 The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah at Judy's

October 13, 2016 About Grace by Anthony Doerr at TBA



Books we've read so far:

January 2014 - Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott

February 2014 - The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

March 2014 - Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

April 2014 - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie

May 2014 - The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

June 2014 - Breaking Free by Marilyn Sewell

July 2014 - The Orphan Train by Kristina Baker Kline

August 2014 - The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

September 2014 - Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

October 2014 - The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

November 2014 - The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

December 2014 - No book.  Holiday gathering.

January 2015 - No book.  Watched The Book Thief

February 2015 - The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

March 2015 - Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne

April 2015 - The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin

May 2015 - The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

June 2015 - The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

July 2015 - Still Alice by Lisa Genova

August 2015 - The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

September 2015 - Ruby by Cynthia Bond

October 2015 - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

November 2015 - No book.  Watched To Kill a Mockingbird

December 2015 - No book.  Holiday gathering.

January 2016 - All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

February 2016 - Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson 

March 2016 - Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín

April 2016 - Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie

May 2016 - Jewelweed by David Rhodes

June 2016 - One Woman's River by Ellen Kolbo McDonah

July 2016 - Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh