When I was in my 20s, my girlfriend, Carolyn, dropped a little paperback book off at my home. It was “Gift from the Sea” by Anne Morrow. It wasn’t my birthday; the gift was purely a gift of friendship.

Little did either of us know that the book would still be sitting on my nightstand decades later! A beautiful little hardback version was reprinted on the book’s 50th anniversary. It is an inspirational book that reflects on the lives of American women. The book is now over 60 years old and is as fresh as the morning dew and as glorious as the beautiful sea.

My favorite passage of Gift From The Sea is the beginning…

I began these pages for myself, in order to think out my own particular pattern of living, my own individual balance of life, work and human relationships. But as I went on writing and talking with other women, young and old, with different lives and experiences – those who supported themselves, those who wished careers, those who were hard-working housewives and mothers and those with more ease – I found that my point of view was not unique. Even those whose lives had appeared to be ticking imperturbably under their smiling clock-faces were often trying, like me, to evolve another rhythm with more creative pauses in it, more adjustment to their individual needs, new and more alive relationships to themselves as well as others.

I am now thinking back on the pattern of my life and how well I balanced the pattern of my life and my relationships.

Gift From The Sea and how I see it reflected in my life

In my twenties, I was immersed in learning about real love and how to share in marriage. I was becoming a mother and enjoying my first home.

In my thirties, with school-age children, I was carpooling and selling Girl Scout cookies with my daughters. I was running charity events, becoming a hostess at home, joining book and movie clubs and indulging in “lunch with the girls.”

My forties were a mix of the bitter and the sweet. I moved to my beautiful Hawaii, lost a darling husband, became a grandmother and remarried a second love.

My fifties were perfect. The children were married, my husband and I traveled the world, many new grandbabies, a new blended family, building a new home and a fabulous marriage.

Next came my sixties… they were very bitter and very sweet. The bitter has made me grow. The sweet has helped me survive. There was a tragic suicide in the family, my bouts with cancer, and a frightening automobile accident. There was also my father’s death, exciting travel, my Bat Mitzvah. Lest we not forget, there was the start of HoneyGood.com and days spent with my wonderful husband.

During these 50 years, I have bonded with extraordinary women from all walks of life, who have shared their lives with me. I would not be who I am if I had not met them. We are all unique, dancing to our drummers, and yet we are all alike because we belong to the same sisterhood.

Gift From The Sea, the ideal gift.

I encourage you to purchase this book for yourselves, your daughters, your daughters-in-law, your granddaughters and your girlfriends (as a keepsake).

Read it. Place it by your bedside as I have.

It is a woman’s book. It is simply, “Gift from the Sea.” I am a lover of the Sea. I have lived on it, studied it, reveled in its beauty and mystery. Each time I reread this book I discover something new. It is ever-changing… as our lives surely are. And, it is, also like our lives, indeed the greatest gift.

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