Feisty Side of Fifty/Baby Boomer Women

Women Over 50—Gifts of the Second Season

I love the book, Gift From the Sea. Although it was originally written in the 1950s, Anne Morrow Lindbergh exhibited a life-force and style that was far ahead of her time. Or, maybe not. Perhaps, I’m just flaunting the bravado and self-indulgent pride we boomers are known for. Maybe our mothers and the women of their age group were not as housebound and repressed as we imagined. Maybe they knew secrets at midlife that might prove important lessons for each one of us. At any rate, Lindbergh certainly did.

Having known great tragedy in her life, the kidnapping and murder of her twenty-month-old son, she must have experienced her share of soul searching. This reflects beautifully in her writing; there is a depth of spirit and self-revelation on every page.

Gift From the Sea is about women, relationships, and growing older—all examined through comparison to various seashells. Throughout, Lindbergh reminds us of the gifts we often overlook, but which are so essential to our nature and inner wellbeing.

Describing midlife, she writes: “We Americans, with our terrific emphasis on youth, action, and material success, certainly tend to belittle the afternoon of life and even to pretend it never comes. We push the clock back and try to prolong the morning, over-reaching and over-straining ourselves in the unnatural effort… In our breathless attempts we often miss the flowering that waits for afternoon.”

I treasure this passage and I treasure this book. As I look at the pages, yellowed with time, it is a true gift. It was my mother’s and I inherited it after she died. Yes, perhaps she did have her own important secrets at midlife and, now, she’s passing these down to me.

If you like what you see, please share and enjoy:

April 1st, 2008 | Tags: 1960’s hippies, 50+, 60s hippies, aging, aging process, aging with grace, anti aging, attitude, baby boomer, baby boomer generation, baby boomer woman, baby boomer women, baby boomer women over 50, baby boomer women over fifty, baby boomers, body, body image, book, boomer, boomers, career, career development, career transition, careers after 50, connect, counterculture, creative, early menopause, Eileen Williams, emotion, empty nest, empty nesters, encourage, female forums, feminist, feminist history, feminist movement, feminists, Fifties, fifty plus, first-wave boomers, forum for women, forums for women, friends, fun, generation, goal, goal attainment, goal setting, groovy, health, healthy aging, hippie, hippie chick, hippie culture, hippies, hippies in the sixties, hippy, humor, inspiration, invitation, lifelong learning, M. Eileen Williams, making goals, marriage, Mary Eileen Williams, mature resources, mature women, maturity, menopausal symptoms, menopause, midlife, midlife crisis, midlife transition, old broad, older women, over fifty, peri menopause, post-menopausal, post-menopause, psychedelic, reaching your goals, retirement, retirement planning, senior discount, senior services, seniors, Seventies, share, signs of menopause, Sixties, speak, story, support, symptoms of menopause, the 50's, the 60's, tips for baby boomer women, turning fifty, voice, wisdom, women, women over 50, women over fifty, write, writer | Category: Inspiring Each Other | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL

Heidi Richards:
May 4th, 2008 at 7:18 am

I remember reading A GIFT FROM THE SEA a few years ago and appreciate the reminder of its message. One of the things I love to do is pass on books once I read them and this was one of those that I gave to my friend Linda… I am going to ask her if she gave it to someone and if so who and try to find out who has it today! Now wouldn’t that be something?

Have a great day… thanks for sharing you with us.

Warmest regards,

Heidi Richards Mooney, Publisher
WE Magazine for Women

Athena:
April 25th, 2008 at 5:33 am

I have enjoyed exploring this site. I will certainly be back. I am going to add you to my blogroll. Thanks for sharing.

Athena
http://www.homespunhealers.wordpress.com

Anonymous:
April 8th, 2008 at 4:48 am

My brother-in-law gave me the book a number of years ago when my children were young and I was feeling forgotten as a woman. I found sustenance in it then. I need to revisit it now to help me as I make my way through my fifties.

Anonymous:
April 7th, 2008 at 9:24 pm

As a willing participant of the Super Woman era, I am now caught in the middle. Mentoring, as well as competing with the up and comers, and at the same time looking forward to the “afternoon of life,” when schedules are flexible and deadlines are forgiven. I truly believe baby boomers will continue to change the tenor of aging, and I relish the experience. Can’t wait to find copy of this book. — Virginia Livingston

Pop Art Diva:
April 5th, 2008 at 6:35 pm

This is a book I’d like to read – I particularly love the comment about “flowering that waits for afternoon.”
I know that I am richer in experience, more well rounded, more tolerant of some things and less tolerant of others and freer than I was at any other time in my life.

Pam Archer:
April 5th, 2008 at 5:25 pm

Eileen,

Thank you for telling us how to find your new posts, because I was visiting and not finding them.

What a treasure you mother passed along to you in this book. The quote is really something we, at mid-life, need to grab hold of. Aging with grace includes realizing we aren’t thirty-something anymore, even though we are the same inside. This is the best time of my life, though it includes carrying around a few more pounds and gravity having it’s way. I have beauty marks of life stamped on my face (and other hidden places), that’s what gives us character. We should be envied by the young. They should all want to be just like us.

Karlyn:
April 5th, 2008 at 1:17 pm

Eileen, I enjoyed your review. It sounds like a lovely book any baby boomer would appreciate.

Debbie Stevens:
April 4th, 2008 at 10:27 pm

Sounds like an absolute gem of a book, one I would like to get my hands on.
Will do a google search and see what I can find! Thanks for sharing this information-

Cheers
Debbie Stevens