Gift from the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Read and reviewed in July, 2009. Released at a park by Mobile Bay

I've had it awhile, and finally got around to reading it. It was a gentle book of essays comparing different stages of life to seashells. For instance, young love and the honeymoon stage of marriage was compared to a sunrise shell (I call it butterfly shell), that are two equal halves hinged together. Young to middle-aged motherhood was compared to an oyster shell or colony, spreading and irregular shaped, but clinging to its rock. She wrote of several stages of life, comparing them to different seashells, and described her idyllic life by the beach. It was a gentle, sweet little book. I kept it by my bedside, and read a chapter or two each night before going to sleep.