Land

Andrew Gide wrote: “In order to discover new lands, one must be willing to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.”

Andre Gide, the French author and winner of the 1947 Nobel Prize in literature.

“We reach a point when the power of youth is gone, the possibility of failure presents itself, and the dreams of earlier times seen shallow and pointless. And then we find ourselves asking the tough questions: What am I meant to do now? What really matters? Who am I?”

“Many of us inhibit our capacity for growth because the culture encourages us to live lives of uniformity. We stall, deny, ignore the ensuing crisis because of confusion, malaise, and yes, even propriety. Yet more and more, I come in contact with [people . . . who do not want merely to be stagnant but rather desire to be generative. [We have] the urge to go against the prevailing currents, step out of line, and break with a polite society that has [us] following the unwritten rules of relationship, accepting the abuses of power . . . and blithely living with myriad shoulds when [we have our] own burgeoning desires.”

“We are born to be ourselves . . . to look back again and again and befriend that person we once intended to become. Life, like a beach, is always rearranging itself. The trick is to welcome and then work with, not against, the changes, and in doing so deepen our innate strengths . . . The goal is to come of age in the middle of life rather than live out our days lacking purpose and energy. It’s all about rearranging our lives in our own image.”

Joan Anderson