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| Image by Brenda @ It's A Beautiful Life |
"When we give cheerfully and accept
gratefully, everyone is blessed."
MAYA ANGELOU
Many good folks are creating a more active online presence and community during this world-wide season of isolation. They offer their unique version of pleasant distractions: interesting facts, sublime photos, pet poses, comforting scenes of home life, helpful facts and hints, encouragement, poetry readings, music and art lessons, funny videos and stories, you name it. In regular life, people were already doing a lot of that, but it's become more focused and more deliberate to help people feel supported and connected.
Musing about what I could offer, I look at my shelves of books lined up—they seem eager to be pressed into service. So for the time being, each morning I will take a book from my shelf, randomly open it, and offer a few lines from it. Or, sometimes I might follow page numbers with the dates on the calendar, so today being March 21, I would share a few lines from page 21. And, I might comment on the chosen portion or just leave the author say it.
Anyways, we'll see how it goes. Let us begin...
March 21st
Gift from the Sea
by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, pg 21
"The shell in my hand is deserted. It once housed a whelk, a snail-like creature, and then temporarily, after the death of the first occupant, a little hermit crab, who has run away, leaving his tracks behind him like a delicate vine on the sand. He ran away, and left me his shell. It was once a protection for him. I turn the shell in my hand, gazing into the wide open door from which he made his exit. Had it become an encumbrance? Why did he run away? Did he hope to find a better home, a better mode of living? I too have run away, I realize, I have shed the shell of my life, for these few weeks of vacation."
* * *
For me, that last line seems appropriate for this season, for we too have shed the shells of our regular lives for these few weeks of vacation isolation. Makes me wonder how we'll all emerge on the other side of this. Let's hope we come through stronger and more courageous and kinder. Grace and mercy for us all! 💙
Wishing you a beautiful day.
Hugs,
Brenda
xox
I'm hooked! What a gift this will be! And I know I will find a new book or two that is a must read.
ReplyDeleteVery clever and fun...thanks!
I do love her books. What a good choice to begin with!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting .
ReplyDeleteOh I like that parting hope that we’ll come through this wiser and better than before. Good device for sharing, too!
ReplyDeleteYes, by God's grace we will journey through this time "wiser and better".
ReplyDeleteI read her book years ago and loved it...thanks for the reminder
ReplyDeleteWonderful idea! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI love this idea! And now I have been reminded about that wonderful looking
ReplyDeletebook again; I need to find a copy....
That is my hope as well...that I will emerge from the other side, not taking a thing for granted. It still doesn't seem quite real even though I have pretty much been sequestered to our new temporary home. Just so very thankful that there is fresh country air to breath and there are few boundary lines. Just praying for this thing to die out quickly and the loss of life comes to a cease. Beautiful post, Bren.
ReplyDelete