your gift to my sea

Summary

Jenine Bsharah Baines reflects on the lessons of patience and faith from Anne Morrow Lindbergh's "Gift from the Sea," drawing parallels between the sea's teachings and her personal journey of self-discovery and resilience.

Abstract

The web content is a personal essay by Jenine Bsharah Baines, who expresses gratitude to Anne Morrow Lindbergh for her book "Gift from the Sea." Baines recounts her experiences of walking along the beach, pondering Lindbergh's words, and finding solace in the sea's metaphorical lessons of patience and faith. She acknowledges her initial impatience and greed for quick answers, akin to digging for treasures, but learns to embrace openness and receptivity, much like the sea's ebb and flow. Baines likens her heart to a clam, once closed and guarded, that has since opened to regenerate and embrace the world, inspired by the sea's ability to release its treasures without force. The essay also references a prompt from Trisha Traughber, which encouraged Baines to dive into Lindbergh's "sea of words" and articulate her reflections, ultimately leading to a renewed sense of trust and surrender to life's rhythms.

Opinions

Baines views the sea as a teacher of patience, patience, patience, and faith, emphasizing the importance of these virtues in personal growth.
She critiques her past self for being overly eager to find quick answers, recognizing this as a lack of faith and impatience.
Baines finds Anne Morrow Lindbergh's words to be a source of comfort and guidance, particularly in times of need.
The author equates her once-guarded heart to a closed clam, which has since learned to open and regenerate, symbolizing her own emotional and spiritual rebirth.
She appreciates the prompts from Trisha Traughber and Vagabond Voices for providing a creative outlet and a framework for her reflections.
Baines expresses deep gratitude to her readers, whom she affectionately refers to as her "sea of joy," indicating the mutual nourishment she receives from her audience.

your gift to my sea

thank you, Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach — waiting for a gift from the sea.” Anne Morrow Lindbergh (Gift from the Sea)

from wherever you are, did you watch as I paced the lagoon? memorizing one phrase per walk, a new pearl added to the necklace of epiphanies fastened behind the aorta of my heart

locked tight as a clam, dead on steamed arrival, muscle mummified in mud.

to dig for treasures tempts me to this day – to unearth meaning beneath moated fortresses impregnable to tides.

to utter my battle cry — what can I learn from this? — and take hostage sands of patience and faith

rehabilitating them into a crystal ball with fast forward, rewind, step by step instructions. instructions

you sent as cavalry — patience, patience, patience in white hats with sunscreen, beach chair, umbrella and a picnic basket of manna, trust

that just as my closed clam heart lost its greed for self-protection and regained faith, spilling not pearls as yours did but sea stars regenerating arms to embrace the world,

so my soul will follow suit. choiceless as the sea surrendered to the moon.

Life is a beach, as I’m sure some tee shirt or towel must have claimed ahead of me. It has its ebbs and flows. High tides and low tides and red tides. And, once upon a hard time, when the beach was but steps away from my patio — oh, how I miss that condo albeit not the angst and drama! — I took to reading Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s Gift from the Sea.

I’d walk the beach and ask the Ocean, what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? Eventually I caught on that all I could do was memorize the words I quoted above. Note how many times AML uses the word “patience.” (Some with “im” in front.) I knew that here lay my answer.

ALM’s words I’ve returned to, very recently, for solace and guidance. So when Trisha Traughber issued the prompt below, I knew what sea of words I’d dive into…albeit it took me a while to figure out what ‘stroke’ I’d use while attempting to keep afloat.

Thank you, Trisha Traughber and Team at Vagabond Voices for welcoming me and for the wonderful prompt. What a gift! And, as ever, thank you, dearest readers — my sea of joy.

your gift to my sea

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