Gift from the Sea

Captiva Island, on Florida's Gulf Coast is the setting for this classic book, "Gift from the Sea", of a woman seeking some serious beach therapy. Anne Morrow Lindbergh speaks elequently of the gift of reflection and solitude that she finds at her seaside cottage. There are many lovely passages about the ocean and the beach, but the actual gifts of the sea are the shells she collects and the symbolism she uses to define them.

“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."

Lindberg's writting is rythmical like the waves and lulls you into a quite state of introspection. Certainly a woman before her time, she speaks to this generation just as strongly as she did to her own generation 50 years ago. Permission to spend some quiet time alone is only the begining of her wisdom.

Her desire to recreate the experience of the beach and the ocean once she returns to her busy life as a wife and a mother is the essence of what I strive to do for myself and others with my beach therapy website.

Just thinking of the experience of reading this book causes tears to well in my eyes. "Gift from the Sea" is a must for any woman in your life - single or married, young or old. If she happens to be a beach lover, then the connection she feels with this book will be only that much stronger.