Beach Books

July 2, 2007

We can not write in water.....we cannot carve in water. Water’s nature is to flow and that is how we should treat life… emotion, negative or positive. Do not deny it but always let it flow through and then away.
-Anonymous

I just finished reading a novel that was perfect for vacation,

A Year by the Sea, by Joan Anderson. It was very inspirational in many ways. How lucky for her to have a cottage on the cape to escape to for a year. Some of her revelations have come to me in less dramatic ways, as far as not spending a day on a deserted island with the seals. But if I had an opportunity to do so, who knows what that would be like for me.

I spent my time instead doing energy rings… expensive and dramatic and took just as much courage, but not sure it led me to where I needed to go. Well, more accurate is not sure I allowed myself to be led.

So today, I also started and finished, A Walk on the Beach, Ms. Anderson’s account of her friendship with Joan Erickson, wife of Erik Erickson, author of Childhood and Society.

One day Ms. Anderson was walking on the beach and she runs into Ms. Erickson and they become fast friends and confidants. Amazing….Joan E. becomes a mentor of sorts for Joan A. and she introduces her to her publisher and encourages her to write up essays about her year at the beach and viola…. she has a best seller and now gives workshops to women about taking time for themselves. Ms. Anderson had published children’s books before so she had been in the business.

I enjoyed both books; they were introspective and held my interest. In fact I could not put them down. Guess I was trying to find the parallels in my own life. Oh, and great quotes and wonderful mentoring.

I started with a quote form the book that moved me and I will end with another:

“You must go through some things crying all the way if you’re ever going to live with them without crying.” Howard Thurman