Gift From The Sea

Over a quarter of a century after its first publication, the great and simple wisdom in this book continues to influence women's lives.

Quila MacFarlane is devastated by the death of her mother, especially now that it’s just her and her father on Devils Rock where her father is the lighthouse keeper. They can’t leave and almost no one ever comes to visit them. But the morning after a storm, something floats ashore that changes their lives forever: Two small mattresses strapped together, and inside, a baby! They name her Cecelia, which means “a gift from the sea,” and call her Celia. She makes them a family again–and helps heal the hurt left by Quila’s mother’s passing. Two years later, though, another stranger arrives, one who changes everything all over again: A woman named Margaret, come looking for the final resting place of her sister, whose ship had gone down in a storm two years before. Her sister’s baby had never been found, either, she explains, and now she has no family of her own. Could this be Celia’s aunt? Will Quila have to give up Celia so Margaret can have her own family back? This is a gripping tale full of love, loss, and healing.

In 1955, Anne Morrow Lindbergh published her timeless book of reflections, Gift from the Sea. This perennial favorite used the metaphor of seashells to explore the inner spiritual path, gently guiding readers to practice simplifying, quieting, shedding, and centering in a too-frantic world. Two generations later, in a far more fast-paced world, Anne M. Johnson asks women to discover the beauty and meaning of Lindbergh's timeless "shells" all over again. In Return to the Sea, she uses experiences from her own spiritual journey -- as a busy mother, career woman, and therapist -- to offer a renewed vision of ways to create intentional space in our lives for personal and spiritual growth. Shell illustrations, along with centering exercises, meditations, and journal-writing exercises, enhance each chapter's reflections on Lindbergh's original "shell" passages. Readers who loved Gift from the Sea the first time -- and women who have yet to be introduced -- welcome these reflections in a beautiful new gift edition.

"Banks and Hallensleben make beautiful books together." -- American Bookseller A boy picks up a rock that he finds on the beach. He holds it in his hand, and admires it. He doesn't know that the rock has been on a great journey through time in making its way to him: that it was spewed forth from a fiery volcano, then altered by eons of wind and rain, frozen during the ice age, and finally carried out into the ocean, where it lay on the floor of the sea before being thrust onto the shore at his feet. But he does know that it is a gift from the sea. Kate Banks and Georg Hallensleben combine their talents to tell a story that is as wonderfully simple as it is profound.

In this final collection of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s letters and journals, we mark Mrs. Lindbergh’s progress as she navigated a remarkable life and a remarkable century with enthusiasm and delight, humor and wit, sorrow and bewilderment, but above all devoted to finding the essential truth in life’s experiences through a hard-won spirituality and a passion for literature. Between the inevitable squalls of life with her beloved but elusive husband, the aviator Charles A. Lindbergh, she shepherded their five children through whooping cough, horned toads, fiancés, the Vietnam War, and their own personal tragedies. She researched and wrote books and articles on issues ranging from the condition of Europe after World War II to the meaning of marriage to the launch of Apollo 8. She published one of the most beloved books of inspiration of all time, Gift from the Sea. She left penetrating accounts of meetings with such luminaries as John and Jacqueline Kennedy, Thornton Wilder, Enrico Fermi, Leland and Slim Hayward, and the Frank Lloyd Wrights. And she found time to compose extraordinarily insightful and moving letters of consolation to friends and to others whose losses touched her deeply. Against Wind and Tide makes us privy to the demons that plagued this fairy-tale bride, and introduces us to some of the people—men as well as women—who provided solace as she braved the tides of time and aging, war and politics, birth and death. Here is an eloquent and often startling collection of writings from one of the most admired women of our time. (With 8 pages of black-and-white photographs.)

An illuminating portrait of Anne Morrow Lindbergh--loyal wife, devoted mother, pioneering aviator, and critically acclaimed author of the bestselling Gift from the Sea. Anne Morrow Lindbergh has been one of the most admired women and most popular writers of our time. Her Gift from the Sea is a perennial favorite. But the woman behind the public person has remained largely unknown. Drawing on five years of exclusive interviews with Anne Morrow Lindbergh as well as countless diaries, letters, and other documents, Susan Hertog now gives us the woman whose triumphs, struggles and elegant perseverance riveted the public for much of the twentieth century.

The basis for the major motion picture of the same name. An entrancing memoir of how one woman's journey of self-discovery gave her the courage to persevere in re-creating her life. Life is a work in progress, as ever-changing as a sandy shoreline along the beach. During the years Joan Anderson was a loving wife and supportive mother, she had slowly and unconsciously replaced her own dreams with the needs of her family. With her sons grown, however, she realized that the family no longer centered on the home she provided, and her relationship with her husband had become stagnant. Like many women in her situation, Joan realized that she had neglected to nurture herself and, worse, to envision fulfilling goals for her future. As her husband received a wonderful job opportunity out-of-state, it seemed that the best part of her own life was finished. Shocking both of them, she refused to follow him to his new job and decided to retreat to a family cottage on Cape Cod. At first casting about for direction, Joan soon began to take pleasure in her surroundings and call on resources she didn't realize she had. Over the course of a year, she gradually discovered that her life as an "unfinished woman" was full of possibilities. Out of that magical, difficult, transformative year came A Year by the Sea, a record of her experiences and a treasury of wisdom for readers.

Sam is full of questions on his first trip to the seashore and his older sister has an answer for each one, except whether or not Sam will ever come into the water.