Gift from the Sea Giveaway {$200 Value}:
1. Pottery Barn Golden Shells and Shell Chart Greeting Card
2. $25 Barnes & Noble Gift Card
3. Neutral Striped Tote from Restoration Hardware
4. SoulCare Journal Set: Fair-Trade Mulberry Paper Journal/Sketchbook, Write for Your Soul Booklet, Twig Pencil
5. French Orange Marmalade, Gingham Spoon and Natural Fiber Placemats from Anthropologie
6. Cooperative Mesh Scarf from Urban Outfitters
7. “Samba with Me to the Sea” Embroidered Dishtowel from Anthropologie
8. Dipped Coral Necklace from Anthropologie
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It has been a joy to be on island time with you this summer as we’ve bent back the pages of Gift from the Sea and discovered so many treasures hiding within. As we reminisce about our time at the edge of the water with Anne Morrow Lindbergh and with each other, I’ve gathered a few souvenirs as reminders of simplicity, solitude, stages of womanhood and relationship, and our responsibilities to our community and the world. As we leave this carefree time of contemplation and head into the more industrious days of fall, I wish these things for you….
1. May you remember that under the surface, “even those whose lives had appeared to be ticking imperturbably under their smiling clock-faces were often trying…to evolve another rhythm with more creative pauses in it, more adjustment to their individual needs, and new and more alive relationships to themselves as well as others.” When you look at these Golden Shells that may find a place in your home decor, remember that underneath the shine, they are real and natural and fragile, and so are the women around you, “searching for a new pattern of living…a contemplative corner of their own.”
2. May you be open to new things, “chance treasures these easy unconscious rollers may toss up on the smooth white sand of the conscious mind….” And maybe use the $25 Barnes & Noble Gift Card to surprise yourself with a new book?
3. As you open up the Striped Tote or another at home and decide what to carry with you, may you learn “the art of shedding; how little one can get along with, not how much” and remember that “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…. For it is only framed in space that beauty blooms.”
4. May you find time for a mini getaway each day, each week and maybe even each year as “certain springs are only tapped when we are alone. The artist knows he must be alone to create; the writer, to work out his thoughts; the musician, to compose; the saint, to pray. But women need solitude in order to find again the true essence of themselves: that firm strand which will be the indispensable center of a whole web of human relationships.” I hope the SoulCare Journal Set with fair-trade mulberry paper sketchbook/journal, Write for Your Soul booklet, and twig pencil will help you tap those creative springs and be refilled.
5. In the simple joy of opening up French Orange Marmalade over Natural Fiber Placemats, may you “find the miracle of the sunrise repeated” in your marriage, “the sudden pleasure of having breakfast alone with the man one fell in love with…two people facing each other…. Nothing but a coffee pot, corn muffins and marmalade” between you.
6. May the Mesh Scarf remind you that “marriage which is always spoken of as a bond, becomes actually, in this stage, many bonds, many strands of different texture and strength, making up a web that is taut and firm.” And may you remember to swim strong together to strengthen those bonds in the midst of the demands of family life.
7. May you revel in the differentiation of interests and strengths and areas of gifting in your relationship and “move confidently in the same pattern.” May you work together in the same direction, dancing, “completely in time with the music, not leaning back to the last step or pressing forward to the next one, but poised directly on the present step as it comes.” I hope the fun “Samba with Me to the Sea” towel will remind you to enjoy the dance in your everyday, even when you’re teaming up to do the dishes.
8. Finally, when you are feeling that “modern communication loads us with more problems than the human frame can carry,” may the Coral Necklace remind you of our fragile habitats and societies and how when we all do our part, catastrophe shrinks.
We will close out next Monday with a look back at Gift from the Sea with Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s afterword, written in 1975, twenty years after initial publication. I’ll announce our giveaway winner in that post. All are invited to enter, even those who haven’t yet read Gift from the Sea. The $25 B&N Gift Card would be a great way to get yourself a copy and start reading. Be sure to get your comments in before midnight on Saturday, August 11 when the contest closes. Until then, have fun entering the giveaway…and be sure to let your friends in on it!
How to enter the Gift from the Sea Giveaway:
1. Follow this blog via Email Subscription or RSS Feed (see sidebar), then comment on this post or any other post in the series.
2. Extra Entry: Tweet this, then re-comment on this post sharing your Twitter handle.
3. Extra Entry: Pin on Pinterest, then re-comment on this post.
4. Extra Entry: Share with friends on Facebook, then re-comment on this post.
What a fantastic giveaway! Wow!! I will post this today for you! (I’m not on twitter or Facebook, myself, otherwise I would link to you there, as well.) Thanks, Darcy. 😀
Wonderful, Kerry! It’s been so fun going through Gift from the Sea with you and to get to know you through your comments and insights shared here and on your blog. Hope to stay connected from here on out.
I’m sad to see the end of the series – I know I rarely commented, but I really enjoyed reading it. You’re such a beautiful writer and I liked your insights on AML & the book.
Sheila, So wonderful to know you’ve been reading along! It’s been so neat to comb through this book as I’ve read it for the second time in writing the series. I know much of it by heart after all this. Was this your first read of it? What is your favorite theme or quote?
What a fun group of items! I can’t wait to look through this series.
Thanks for sharing Darcy, I can’t wait to get my copy of Gift from the Sea.
I would let you borrow mine except it’s all scratched up with pencil marks and notes! Good to connect with you again yesterday.
After I’m done reading Anna Karenina (phew, it’s a long one!), I will have to look into Gift from the Sea!
I’ve never read AK but I know this will feel like a BREEZE after that. 🙂
This giveaway is amazing! I’m crossing my fingers… I have LOVED reading this book (though I have to finish it still…). Thanks for sharing your words and beautiful heart!
S
I love that you’ve been reading some of the book to your hubby, too. Thanks for all the shares today.
Ok, I just shared it on FB too!
And, finally, just pinned it! 🙂
This looks great!
Glad you found your way here, Cassi!
Just tweeted @cassi9879
Just posted on FB
Wonderful giveaway! I follow via email.
family74014 at gmail dot com
Thanks for following. Hope you enjoy being part of the Message in a Mason Jar community!
Thank you so much! I am now following through RSS. 🙂
I tweeted @egood33
Here’s my tweet: https://twitter.com/egood33/status/233743295858237440
I also pinned to Pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/pin/41939840250788950/
Shared to my fb here: https://www.facebook.com/elisabeth.good1/posts/455053427849643
I just followed your blog through email. What a great giveaway and blog!
Hi,
I subscribed and retweeted. It has been a wonderful series and the pictures you added were great additions as well.
I’m sqeeking in at the last minute–couldn’t focus on reading this when kids were around! 🙂 I also follow you via Google Reader/RSS feed.