In Anne Morrow Lindberg's Gift from the Sea , a book I regularly read at the beginning of each new year, the author talks of "shedding." I'm sure I've read the term multiple times, but this year it jumped off the page and right into my psyche!
Gems for shedding from pages 30-35: (Lindberg words in quotes, Paraphrase, mine)
At the beach (or in "retreat' one learns the art of shedding; how much one can get along without.
"...how little one can get along with---not how much." Clothes first---not much needed. What a relief!! (Relief is one of my favorite experiential nouns. DAL)
After the physical shedding of "extra" clothes, shedding of vanity seems a natural occurrence. A shedding of pride ensues.
Gems for shedding from pages 30-35: (Lindberg words in quotes, Paraphrase, mine)
At the beach (or in "retreat' one learns the art of shedding; how much one can get along without.
"...how little one can get along with---not how much." Clothes first---not much needed. What a relief!! (Relief is one of my favorite experiential nouns. DAL)
After the physical shedding of "extra" clothes, shedding of vanity seems a natural occurrence. A shedding of pride ensues.
I will ask into my shell only those friends with whom I can be completely honest. I find I am shedding hypocrisy in human relationships. What a rest that will be! The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere. That is why so much of social life is exhausting; one is wearing a mask. I have shed my mask. (Lindberg, p. 32)May these "sheddings" bring a sincere simplicity of life that offers serenity in 2018---for all of us.
