bq.“Was that armor put on to protect one from the competitive world? If one ceases to compete, does one need it?”

This is a favorite quote from the classic A Gift from the Sea written by Anne Morrow Lindberg in 1955, and given to me as a high school graduation gift in 1981. I never really ‘got it’ until I re-read it just a month ago. Morrow’s brilliant insights on the search for outward simplicity, inner integrity, and for fuller relationships are spot on, even today. The moment we have been dreading- middle age- it turns out can be the best time of our lives if we can just let go of our attachment to what the others think of us, simplify our lives, love our bodies and wrinkles that come from a billion smiles, and realize that there’s so much more to life being perfect.