Years ago, as I helped my parents pack up my childhood home for a move to a retirement community, I came across a first edition copy of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s Gift From the Sea. In this 1956 release, Lindbergh shares her meditations on youth and age; love and marriage; peace and contentment—all written during a brief vacation by the sea. She challenges the trappings of modernity that threaten to overwhelm us, the ways we make life more complicated. And though she later admits the popular, slim volume was not her best work, it remains a timeless classic.
Nearly 70 years later I find it resonates. This passage, especially, seems written for our times:
“Today a kind of planetal point of view has burst upon mankind. The world is rumbling and erupting in ever-widening circles around us. The tensions, conflicts and sufferings even in the outermost circle touch us all, reverberate in all of us. We cannot avoid these vibrations.
“But just how far can we implement this planetal awareness? We are asked today to feel compassionately for everyone in the world; to digest intellectually all the information spread out in public print; and to implement in action every ethical impulse aroused by our hearts and minds. The interrelatedness of the world links us constantly with more people than our hearts can hold. Or rather—for I believe the heart is infinite—modern communication loads us with more problems than the human frame can carry. It is good, I think for our hearts, our minds, our imaginations to be stretched; but body, nerve, endurance and life-span are not as elastic. My life cannot implement in action the demands of all the people to whom my heart responds.” *
In our digital age, we’re stretched even further, the vibrations shake us. I find comfort in knowing, however, that the “heart is infinite.” I’m reminded of the vision of love George Fox recorded in his journal: “I saw that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but [also] an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness. And in that also I saw the infinite love of God.” Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5).
There’s no question we’re in trying times. Daily, I find myself praying for wisdom and discernment to know what is mine to do. I can’t conjure hope on my own, nor can I compel myself to love. So this too becomes my prayer: “Help me to love.”
*Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift From the Sea, 1956.
Continue the conversation in the comments, below
Nearly 70 years later I find it resonates. This passage, especially, seems written for our times:
“Today a kind of planetal point of view has burst upon mankind. The world is rumbling and erupting in ever-widening circles around us. The tensions, conflicts and sufferings even in the outermost circle touch us all, reverberate in all of us. We cannot avoid these vibrations.
“But just how far can we implement this planetal awareness? We are asked today to feel compassionately for everyone in the world; to digest intellectually all the information spread out in public print; and to implement in action every ethical impulse aroused by our hearts and minds. The interrelatedness of the world links us constantly with more people than our hearts can hold. Or rather—for I believe the heart is infinite—modern communication loads us with more problems than the human frame can carry. It is good, I think for our hearts, our minds, our imaginations to be stretched; but body, nerve, endurance and life-span are not as elastic. My life cannot implement in action the demands of all the people to whom my heart responds.” *
In our digital age, we’re stretched even further, the vibrations shake us. I find comfort in knowing, however, that the “heart is infinite.” I’m reminded of the vision of love George Fox recorded in his journal: “I saw that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but [also] an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness. And in that also I saw the infinite love of God.” Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5).
There’s no question we’re in trying times. Daily, I find myself praying for wisdom and discernment to know what is mine to do. I can’t conjure hope on my own, nor can I compel myself to love. So this too becomes my prayer: “Help me to love.”
*Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift From the Sea, 1956.
Continue the conversation in the comments, below
Paula J. HamptonPaula J. Hampton has devoted many years to supporting Christian education as an editor of books, Bible studies, and devotionals for Barclay Press. She practices self-care through quilting, reading, and baking. Paula is a member of the Eden Spiritual Care board. |  |
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