Jessica Guisbert Gift from the Sea Anne Morrow Lindbergh Reflection Paper The Gift from the Sea made me sit back and think about what I thought about my life. It made me think about my family and the way we interact as a unit all within the same “shell. ” After reading Anne’s book I felt very centered, like I had a new view on my life. I felt more willing to accept the inevitable changes in life. I connected with many of the points in Gift from the Sea. Anne states in her book that “woman instinctively wants to give, yet resents giving herself In small pieces. she continues by saying that “ what women resent is not so much giving herself in pieces, so much as giving herself purposelessly. Women must always have 100% to give for their children, 100% for their husband, 100% for their friends, work, school and so on. In order to give fully a woman must stop and replenish herself regularly as her day to day life demands far more than 100% of herself. This reminded me of a story that my dad sent me about a philosopher and his class. The philosopher had a glass jar, some sand, some pebbles and some golf balls.
He used these materials in two ways, first he filled the jar with sand, this left no room for the pebbles and the golf balls. Then he filled the jar with the golf balls, he asked if the jar was full, the students answered yes. The golf balls represent the important things in your life, family, friends, and other things of that sort. Then he poured in the pebbles. The pebbles filled in the spaces around the golf balls, he asked again if the jar was full, the students responded yes. He explained that the pebbles represent the things in your life that are less important, your job, house, car, bills and so on.
The philosopher then poured the sand in the jar, the sand filled in the spaces around the pebbles, he asked if the jar was full, yes, the sand represents the things that are not so important, the little things. The story reminds me of Anne’s statements about clearing away clutter and unneeded things. You can still lead a full life without the little things, but if you take care of the things that matter first you still have room for other, smaller things. This prevents a woman from “giving of herself purposelessly” because she gives fully to the things that matter first.
