Connecting the pieces.

Reconnecting

“Woman’s life today is tending more and more toward the state William James described so well in the German word, Zerrissenheit—torn-to-pieces-hood.  She cannot live perpetually in ‘Zerrissenheit.’ She will be shattered into a thousand pieces.  On the contrary, she must consciously encourage those pursuits which oppose the centrifugal forces of today.  Quiet time alone, contemplation, prayer, music, a centering line of thought or reading, of study or work…It need not be an enormous project or a great work.  But it should be something of one’s own…What matters is that one be for a time inwardly attentive.”

                                  Anne Morrow Lindbergh

                                  Gift from the Sea

         Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s little book, Gift from the Sea, was first published in 1955.  It was the first book on Women’s Spirituality I read and one I read again from time to time.  Her meditations on everything from youth and age to solitude and contentment are presented in a clear and compassionate way.  To say it reflects the thinking of the time would be a mistake; in the fifties women were not encouraged to seek solitude and self-expression.  Lindbergh’s work was quite radical.  Today the thoughts she shares seem almost prophetic.  Indeed, women's lives have come to resemble Zerrissenheit, but so have men’s.  The ‘race to the top and take no prisoners along the way’ mentality that is prevalent today is the same one that has caused the crumbling of so many of our trusted institutions—marriage, finance, banking, politics. 

         Her recommendation, way back in 1955, was ‘take some time to be alone and be inwardly focused.’  And, do something creative that is a true expression of you.  It could be something as simple as arranging a bowl of flowers, writing a poem, rearranging the furniture in a room, or saying a prayer.  Sabbath is a good day for that hour or afternoon of inward turning.  Consider it the ‘putting-the-pieces-back-together’ time.  In fact, if you are feeling torn into pieces, getting an old jig-saw puzzle down from the attic, or up from the basement, and spending the afternoon putting it together is as good a way as any to focus quietly inward.  Remember when you used to set up a card table and spend a week putting together a thousand piece puzzle—and all the family helped?  It is a good low-tech way of reconnecting both externally and internally. 

         Lindburgh knew that what she suggested was radical.  She wrote, “Revolutionary, in fact, because almost every trend and pressure, every voice from the outside is against this new way of inward living.  Woman must be the pioneer in this turning inward for strength.  In a sense she has always been the pioneer.”

                                  Happy reconnecting,

                                  Jane