Introduction to a discussion forum - Gift from the Sea, Join us

As I begin this morning I have a personal list a mile long "to do" today.  Slowing down is not in or on my thoughts at all....Nope, my thoughts are "Bust a move Girl" and fast.   Knowing that it might be my first sips of coffee that are igniting this energy, I'm really grateful to be to read this book again at this time a year.

 Yesterday Morning I found my book on the shelf....which had been shuffled to the back of the shelf from the use of other books. As you can see this book was given to me by my step mother Mary. 19 years ago. My oldest child Stevie was almost 10, Maddie her sister was 8 and the twins, Jake and Bernie were 4. The addition on the house was up and we were under roof but not living it at that point. Sobering thought of a good future where a upon us.   They were  trying times and also now that I look back some of the most blessed times.

Anne Marrow Lindbergh wrote this book in 1955,  that would make it 59 years ago. Sharing now some information I found on the Internet.

While on vacation on Florida's Captiva Island in the early 1950s, Lindbergh wrote this essay-style work taking shells on the beach for inspiration, and reflecting on the lives of Americans, particularly American women, in the mid-twentieth century. She shares her meditations on youth and age; love and marriage; peace, solitude and contentment during her visit.

Sometimes classified as inspirational literature, the book presages many of the themes in that genre of popular literature: simplicity, solitude and caring for the soul. Gift from the Sea has sold over 3 million copies and has been translated into 45 languages.

From the 50th anniversary edition book....

At whatever point one opens Gift from the Sea, to any chapter or page, the author's words offer a chance to breathe and to live more slowly. The book makes it possible to quiet down and rest in the present, no matter what the circumstance may be. Just to read it -a little of it or in it's entirety is to exist for a while in a different and more peaceful tempo. 

She was, after all, a woman who raised five children after tragically losing her first son in 1932. She was the first woman in America to earn a first-class glider pilot's license, in 1930, and the first woman ever to win the National Geographic Society's Hubbard Medal, in 1934, for her aviation and exploration adventures. She also received the National Book Award, in 1938, for Listen!  The Wind, her novel based on adventures and she remained a best-selling author all her life. 

In honest reflection upon her own experience, in trying to live from a core of inner stillness while actively responding, as we all must do, to the "here and the now," my mother quietly set herself free, into her own life and into all life. By writing Gift from the Sea, she found a new way to live in the world, for herself and for others. It is a joy to know that with this fiftieth anniversary edition a whole new generation of readers will be able to follow her. 

Reeve Lindbergh

St. Johnsbury, Vermont

March 2005

At this point I personally would like to share, with talking to a friend in Georgia we shared this book together when our kids where young. I've shared this book in a Collage Art Class format a few times, were we would read the chapter and then come back a week later and create a small piece of art inspired by what we read and our thoughts. And I might have shared it in a format like this too. 

Be it spring time here and hanging on to old friendships and staying in connection that this book was brought to mind and pulled off the shelf again to be opened and read.  I'm not a writer and my words will be a bit scrambled now and then as I share what inspires me each Thursday. You are more then welcome to follow along and share. Introduce yourself if you would like and chat about what ever comes to mind...

My intentions around this book discussion are simple, and to be shared with a circle of woman. If you are so inspired to be creative and have a blog, website or place on the internet you would like to share your work please add it in with your comments so we can all see, note you are not required at all to create to partake in this discussion some times though this kind of format will inspire one though. 

Starting with the Introduction in the book Gift from the Sea and my personal introduction....today

When I read the introduction today....comfort and the thoughts are "this woman knows and is observant" all come to my mind. I'm still a wife to this husband of mine...people laugh because I call him the husband when I'm talking about him but he does have a name, Randy.  We still love and live in this house, that is still not finish, 21 year's it's been that we added the addition on...and our children are now 29, 26 and 22, 22...still all living under the same roof.  At one point I was embarrassed to say. because aren't your children suppose to move out by a certain age..?. Well for what ever reasons...mainly lack of $ that's not happening now so my humble beginning at this point of reading and share will come from where I am at the present. I have a wonderful studio space to create art and for the past 15 years I've been creating my own job, of teaching what I do and with hopes of selling what I make and along the way I'm learning growing and understanding what it's all about to be who I am, woman, wife, mother, artists....etc. The Art of finding my own personal patterns of living and balance. 

Let us begin and share where you are now in the present....on this blog post for this week. Each Thursday I will get us started and allow the waves to carry us the rest of the way back to The Gifts from the Sea.