I mentioned a few posts back that I had been reading Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead. Soon after finishing that book, I decided to re-read her Gift from the Sea, which I first read many years ago. Apparently I was too young back then to appreciate the messages in Gift. This time, with this reading, many of Anne Lindbergh's observations really hit home with me.Gift from the Sea is a journal, so to speak, of her time at a seaside cottage, mainly time spent alone to think and observe and take in the richness of being alone with oneself.
When the two-week sojourn is finished, Anne Lindbergh looks at the seashells she has collected and decides to take home only two or three. This is what she says which has made such an impact on me: 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 is an event; six are a succession....
For it is only framed in space that beauty blooms. Only in space are events and objects and people unique and significant — and therefore beautiful. A tree has significance if one sees it against the empty face of sky. A note in music gains significance from the silences on either side. A candle flowers in space of night.
She concludes by saying her life, and of course our lives, are full of "too many activities and people and things."
Wow. I had never thought of the danger of having too much of anything. I guess I have always subscribed to the "more is better" philosophy, but now I'm thinking Anne Lindbergh has got it right. How can we see the beauty in things when each thing is crowded in amongst so many similar things? How can we see the beauty in people when each person is merely one in a crowd? How can we appreciate each day of our lives if each day is hectically wedged in among other hectic days?
Wow-certainly food for thought.
ReplyDeleteLovely post, Aunt Jean. As you know, I love Gift From the Sea. I keep a copy of it on my night stand, and for some reason, I always look for copies of it at thrift stores. I haven't read it in quite some time - - I think I will go back for another read.
ReplyDeletegreat thoughts, i too read her book many years ago and enjoyed it so much.
ReplyDeleteOne of the first things you learn in interior decorting is the importance of open space in a room. The eye always needs some place to land. It should be able to rest there and then move on to another point of interest. As a realtor, I've taken clients into a home with an over abundance of clutter and have had to laugh when we walked to the care and had to ask one another what colors the walls were... if there was carpet or wood flooring, how large the windows were in the living room, etc. We couldn't even see the house for the knick knacks, pictures, collections of dolls, plates, shoes, and whatever else the sellers could stuff into their homes. We live in an obsessive society, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteI already explained how I felt about having too much in my last post so I won't go on any further, except to say that I really want to read this book. It's on my list of purchases to make. I'm pretty sure it's one that I'll want to mark up so, it's not a good library read.
You've certainly given me something to think about, Jean. I do like simplicity in things. I've been wanting my bedroom to have more of a zen look with less clutter.
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