Christmas Gifts From The Sea

" . . . the small circle of home . . . the particular uniqueness
of each member of the family;
the spontaneity of now; the vividness of here.
This is the basic substance of life."
[And of Christmas!]

Shells for the Tree

For what is Christmas,
if not heaven on earth?
57 - 58: " . . . the neglect of our own inner springs. Why have we been seduced into abandoning this timeless inner strength of woman for the temporal outer strength of man? This outer strength of man is essential to the pattern, but even here the reign of purely outward solutions seems to be waning today. Men, too are being forced to look inward -- to find inner solutions as well as outer ones. Perhaps this change marks a new stage of maturity for modern extrovert, activist, materialistic man. Can it be that he is beginning to realize that that the kingdom of heaven is within?"

126: "If we stop to think about it, are not the real casualties of modern life just these centers I have been discussing: the here, the now, the individual and his relationships. The present is passed over in the race for the future, the here is neglected in favor of the there, and the individual is dwarfed by the enormity of the mass. America, which as the most glorious present still existing in the world today, hardly stops to enjoy it, in her insatiable appetite for the future."

127 - 128: "The here, the now, and the individual have always been the special concern of the saint, the artist, and -- from time immemorial -- the woman. . . . the small circle of home . . . the particular uniqueness 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.”

― Anne Morrow Lindbergh ―
Gift from the Sea

Previous Related Posts:
Only Collect a Few (Imprints #3)
More Gifts from the Sea (& Sky)
More Gifts from the Seashore
Trees and Shells

Thanks to Antoinette for this one:

"I must write it all out, at any cost.
Writing is thinking. It is more than living,
for it is being conscious of living."

~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh ~