Anne Morrow Lindbergh
talks about her fourth shell, the oyster bed,
as a symbol of the middle years of marriage.
"Sprawling and uneven, it has the irregularity of
something growing. It looks rather like the house
of a big family, pushing out one addition after another
to hold its teeming life...it amuses me because it seems so
much like my life at the moment...untidy, spread out in
all directions, heavily encrusted with accumulations....
The oyster has fought to have that place on the rock
to which it has fitted itself perfectly. ...so most couples
in the growing years of marriage struggle to achieve a
place in the world. It is a physical and material battle
first of all, for a home, for children, for a place in their
particular society.
Here the bonds of marriage are formed. For
marriage, which is always spoken of as a bond,
becomes actually many bonds, many strands, of
different texture and strength, making up a web that
is taut and firm. The web is fashioned of love. Yes,
but many kinds of love; romantic love first, then a
slow-growing devotion and, a constantly rippling
of companionship. It is made of loyalties, and
inter dependencies, and shared experiences. It is
woven of memories of meetings and conflicts; of triumphs
and disappointments. It is a web of communication, a
common language, too; a knowledge of likes and dislikes,
of habits and reactions, both physical and mental. It is a
web of instincts and intuitions.....
I am very fond of the oyster shell. It is humble and
awkward and ugly. It's form is not primarily
beautiful but functional....Sometimes I resent its
burdens and excrescences. But its tireless
adaptability and tenacity draw my astonished
admiration and sometimes even my tears....."
~~anne morrow lindbergh
I've never heard of Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Thank you for this wonderful thought...
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