My favourite book is 'A Gift from the Sea' by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, written in 1955. A special friend gave it to me and wrote in the front of it, 'Jeanie, This book has told me many secrets and you will understand and appreciate them'.

This is true; I can go to any page and find something that is of significance in my life. Since that time I have bought and given away dozens of copies of this book to so many women throughout the world. And it also has told them many secrets. This classic book of essays was originally written to help Anne work out her problems, but it has since helped many folk look more deeply into their lives. Of course, the world has totally changed since she wrote the book, however, the wisdom of her words has not changed one bit. The book is about going to an island, living there and collecting shells. In it she relates different shells to different times and relationships in our lives.

When we moved to Vancouver a few years ago and built a new home there, we named it after one of the chapters in the book, Argonauta. More recently, when we decided to retire to Bermuda, I went to my favourite book to see what the next chapter was all about, to see if it might possibly also be the next chapter in my life. It was called 'A Few Shells'. In this chapter Anne talks about greedily collecting lots of shells when she first arrived on the island.

However, she says that we cannot collect all the shells on the beach and bring them home. In fact, she states that it is better to collect only a few, or even one, so that they can be set apart and ringed by space, just like an island. As she says, when objects or people are framed in space their beauty will bloom.

Here on this island of Bermuda we all have space, even though some of you may not think so! However, as Anne Morrow Lindbergh writes: "Paradoxically, in this limited area, space has been forced upon me. The geographical boundaries, the physical limitations, the restrictions on communication, have enforced a natural selectivity."

Island living selects things for us in many ways.

There are wonderful folk here that I would not normally see in a suburban area of a large city, a district one chooses to live in because of similar needs and wants. On an island this is very different, for here, the small space selects for me strangers who have been chosen by an accident of time to live within the confines of this island with me. I am with people I might never have chosen to be my neighbours, but life has chosen them for me. And what jewels it has given me.

As we all come together on this Island, we have to stretch ourselves to understand each other. And in the process, we ourselves are stretched more fully. Here we cannot select the people who are more like ourselves, just like those suburbanites or local rural folk. Here our choice is limited, and from these unfamiliar folk we can find great enrichment. There are the interesting people and the uninteresting ones; there is quality not quantity; there is slowness not speed; also there are not so many distractions or opportunities. There is simplicity of living that allows us a true awareness of life, a truly mindful life. There is here on the island a great balance of physical, mental and spiritual. There is time to communicate with others.

There is time for solitude, and nature - which is so much a part of Bermuda - helps us to understand the great inter-being-ness of life.

Bermuda is a wonderful place to practice the art of mindful living; we have all the elements supplied to us in the fullest and richest possible way. Island living allows us to look at ourselves with greater understanding and love. It selects for us, so that we look at our fellow island dwellers with greater understanding and love. Bermuda might be the finest example of mindful-living for the whole world. Let's use its mindful gifts. We are all so blessed to live here.

The Mindfulness Practice Community of Bermuda invites you to join us any Sunday night at 5.14 pm to 6.44 pm at The Manchester Union Building in Hamilton. Call 236-4988 for more details or email us at iamhomibl.bm or visit the web site on Living Mindfully at www.plumvillage.org