Council for Health and Human Service Ministries

Word and Deed: Thoughts on Faith-Based Leadership

Gift from the Sea / Healing Humanity

Shirley Nelson Some books are like old friends that you don't see on a regularly, but when you visit with them from time to time the joy of their acquaintance is renewed. Gift from the Sea, written by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, is just that kind of treasure. I can't recall my first reading but I can tell by the highlighted and underlined passages that it was intense and thought provoking. Prompted by a desire to begin preparing for a women's retreat in North Dakota this fall, I picked it up again to reflect on the gems that are embedded within each chapter.

Lindbergh was the daughter of a respected U.S. diplomat who was vaulted into celebrity by her marriage to aviator Charles Lindbergh. The marriage was not easy; her husband was a vivid figure pursued relentlessly by the media. Her discomfort from the spotlight turned to horror when her first born son was kidnapped and murdered in 1932. The infant was missing for more than two months, amid a hail of ransom notes, before his body was discovered near the couple's New Jersey home.

On Florida's Captiva Island, Lindbergh enjoyed a brief respite from the obligations of family and career. There, using the shells on the beach for inspiration, she reflected on the life of the American woman in the middle of the 20th century. Although the world has changed significantly since then, especially for women, Lindbergh's message is still very relevant: "...woman must come of age by herself--she must find her true center alone." The lesson seems to need relearning about every twenty years in a woman's life. (134-135)

Lindbergh presents us with the gift of five different sea shells, each one representing a period in Lindbergh's life and the feelings and emotions she experienced during those times.

  • Channeled Whelk / Simplification of life: "But what I want most of all--in fact, as an end to these other desires--to be at peace with myself. I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central core to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can." (23)
  • Moon Shell / Solitude: "For it is not physical solitude that actually separates one from other men, not physical isolation, but spiritual isolation. . . .When one is stranger to oneself, then one is estranged from others too. If one is out of touch with oneself, then one cannot touch others." (44)
  • Double Sunrise / Eternal Validity: "Duration is not a test of true or false...Validity need have no relation to time, to duration, to continuity. It is on another plane, judged by other standards. It relates to the actual moment in time and place. And what is actual is actual only for one time and only for one place." (76)
  • Oyster Bed / Suggests struggle of life: "One tries to cure the signs of growth, to exorcise them, as if they were devils, when really they might be angels of annunciation. . . . having shed many of the physical struggles, the worldly ambitions, the material encumbrances of active life, one might be free to fulfill the neglected side of one's self - growth of mind, heart, and talent; free at last for spiritual growth..."(88)
  • Argonauta / Freedom: "For we are, actually, pioneers trying to find a new path through the maze of tradition, convention and dogma. Our efforts are part of the struggle to mature the conception of relationships between men and women--in fact all relationships. In such a light, every advance in understanding has value.

Writing as a way to think out her own particular pattern of living, Lindbergh states that "...not all women are searching for a new pattern of living, or want a contemplative corner of their own. Many women are content with their lives as they are." (10) Gifts from the Sea is her contribution to men and women who seek to find balance of life, work, and human relationships, evolving from one state of being to the next amidst distractions and ineptitudes. May you find peace, love, and joy along the journey.

Shirley Nelson

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