I shot this picture at sunset on the way home.  Steve and I were in the middle of talking and I realized I had not taken a picture that day.  I mention that we were in the middle of talking because Steve is so used to me taking pictures that he just kept right on talking.  I snapped a few and then put it away and continued on--neither of us missing a beat.  Now seeing the picture it strikes me as funny.  I can remember exactly what we were talking about, and in the middle of one of his sentences he said, "Just wait--the sun will be better after we pass this mountain," and I was thinking how great it was to be with him and how interested he is in even the tiny details of my life, like the light in my photographs.

Steve and I always have the best conversations on long trips.  One of our conversations was all on the things we loved about the Outer Banks.  The kids had fun joining in on that talk.  I am itching to finish the pictures--it is quite ridiculous that it is four months later and I have not even looked at some of them!

Just a few days ago Chloe and I brought out some things from past trips including some shells from the Outer Banks.  I wanted to scribble some Lindbergh quotes on mine and let Chloe scribble with abandon on hers.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh's book, the one I bring with me on every beach vacation, is called  Gift From The Sea    and for years I have read it, thinking of what I was taking away from the book.  The way it made me think and want to write myself.  When I read her thoughts, it feels like I am sitting with my sisters or a good friend and talking/analyzing about life. 

This past read was different.   Dad was with us on this vacation and he is a huge reader. The first day we were there, he had moved two bookshelves over by the chair he claimed for himself in the living room and had filled them with his books that he brought for vacation.  One of the books was by Julie Nixon Eisenhower called Special People.  Each chapter is a different person that Julie brings to your attention and makes you want to learn more about.  One chapter was on Anne Morrow Lindbergh and after reading it, my thoughts were altered in how I perceived her book.  I knew about her life--I mean, I kind of knew--but never put the pieces together.  She was the woman who was a pilot, she and her husband were famous, they struggled because of their fame and it was hard for them to find private moments.  Then their firstborn son was kidnapped and killed.   This little book was written twenty years later. Anne now a mother of five children is alone on a small private retreat in Florida and writes this book.  I read it differently knowing all of that.  She has the right to talk about balance between solitude and communion--she has five children.  She can write about healing and life she has had the depth of experience.  She survived and I want to listen to what she has to say.

"I must find a balance somewhere,

or an alternating rhythm between these two extremes;

a swinging of the pendulum between solitude and communion,

between  Retreat and return 

In my periods of retreat, perhaps I can learn something to carry back". (pg 24)

"I want a singleness of eye,

a purity of intention,

a central core to my life

that will enable me to carry out my obligations and activities as well as I can."  (pg 17)

"I begin to shed my Martha-like anxiety about many things.

Washable slipcovers, faded and old-I hardly see them,

I don't worry about the impression they make on other people. 

I am shedding pride. 

As little furniture as possible; I shall not need much. 

I shall ask into my shell only those friends with whom I can be completely honest. 

I find I am shedding hypocrisy in human relationships.  What a rest that will be! 

The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere. 

That is why so much of social life is exhausting; one is wearing a mask.  I have shed my mask."   (pg 26)

--Anne Morrow Lindbergh taken from her book Gifts From the Sea