The
Beach At My Back
This is an excerpt from the book “Gift
from the Sea” by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Pantheon Books, 1955.
Perhaps we never appreciate the here and now
until it is challenged, as it is beginning to be today even in America. And
have we not also been awakened to a new sense of the dignity of the individual
because of the threats and temptations to him, in our time, to surrender his
individuality to the mass – whether it be industry or war or standardization of
thought and action? We are now ready for a true appreciation of the value of
the here and the now and the individual.
The
here, the now, and the individual, have always been the special concern of the
saint, the artist, the poet, and – from time immemorial - the woman. In the
small circle of the home she has never quite forgotten the particular uniqueness
of each member of the family; the spontaneity of each member of the family; the
spontaneity of now; the vividness of here.
This is the basic substance of life.
These are the individual elements that form the bigger entities like mass,
future, world. We may neglect these elements, but we cannot dispense with them.
They are the drops that make up the stream. They are the essence of life
itself.
It may be our special function to emphasize again these neglected
realities, not as a retreat from greater responsibilities but as a first real
step toward a deeper understanding and solution of them. When we start at the
center of ourselves, we discover something worthwhile extending toward the
periphery of the circle. We find again some of the joy in the now, some of the
peace in the here, some of the love in me and thee which go to make up the
kingdom of heaven on earth.
The waves echo behind me. Patience – Faith – Openness
is what the sea has to teach. Simplicity – Solitude – Intermittency… But there
are other beaches to explore. There are more shells to find. This is only a
beginning.
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