A Walk on the Beach: Tales of Wisdom From an Unconventional Woman | 
 enlarge | Author: Joan Anderson
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
Buy New: $5.30
You Save: $7.65 (59%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 63408
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.5
ISBN: 0767914759
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9780767914758
ASIN: 0767914759
Publication Date: April 5, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Shortly after arriving on Cape Cod to spend a year by herself, Joan Anderson’s chance encounter with a wise, playful, and astonishing woman helped her usher in the transformations and self-discoveries that led to her ongoing renewal. First glimpsed as a slender figure on a fogged-in beach, Joan Erikson was not only a friend and confidante when one was most needed, but also a guide as Anderson stretched and grew into her unfinished self.
Joan Erikson was perhaps best known for her collaboration with her husband, Erik, a pioneering psychoanalyst and noted author. After Erik’s death, she wrote several books extending their theory of the stages of life to reflect her understanding of aging as she neared ninety-five. But her wisdom was best taught through their friendship; as she sat with Anderson, weaving tapestries of their lives with brightly colored yarn while exploring the strength gathered from their accumulated experiences, Joan Erikson’s lessons took shape on their small cardboard looms as well as in her friend’s revitalized life.
In writing about their extraordinary friendship, Anderson reveals a need she didn’t know she had: for a mentor to help navigate the transitions she faced as she grew beyond middle age. And when Joan Erikson had to face her husband’s death and the growing limitations of her own body, Anderson was able to give back some of the wisdom she had gleaned. To this poignant, joyful account, Joan Anderson brings the candor and sensitivity that have made her an acclaimed speaker and writer on midlife and its possibilities. A Walk on the Beach is an experience to savor and treasure, a glimpse of the exuberant spirit that can be sustained and passed on in all our friendships.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 27 more reviews...
 Consistently Motivating June 6, 2008
Each book ~ although different in their own way ~ continues to be truly amazing. They are motivating, endearing and engaging. Joan feels like a dear old friend, yet I'm discovering about myself !
An Uncommon Delight February 19, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I first "met" Joan Anderson in her book, A Year By the Sea. I was in awe of this woman who took a hiatus from her marriage, moved to the solitude of a life on Cape Cod and took the time to really get to know herself.
Her second book, An Unfinished Marriage, was a continuation of her journey, as she shared the story of how her husband eventually joined her in Cape Cod.
Not surprisingly, the third book in this trilogy, A Walk On the Beach, was an uncommon delight. I wasn't quite sure what else Ms. Anderson could share about her Cape Cod experience. I was soon to find out there was a lot left to tell.
Her first book in the trilogy will always be my favorite, but "A Walk On the Beach" ranks right up there with it. We are transported back to many of the same scenes we read about in "A Year By the Sea", but we learn of a remarkable friendship that began in an otherwise isolated period of the author's life.
On a foggy day, we walk with Ms. Anderson onto a jetty overlooking the ocean. There we are introduced to Joan Erikson--a writer and the wife of pioneering psychoanalyst Erik Erikson.
In the pages that follow, we are allowed a glimpse into the "Tales of Wisdom From An Unconventional Woman" (the subtitle of the book).
"The beach to me is a sacred zone between the earth and the sea, one of those in-between places where transitions can be experienced--where endings can be mourned and beginnings birthed. A walk along the beach offers the gift of the unexpected. Scan the horizon and glimpse the endelss possibilities. Stroll head down and encounter one natural treasure after another. Tease the tides and feel a sense of adventure. Dive into the surf and experience the rush of risk."
From the Prologue:
"One of the most significant gifts the beach has given me was Joan Erikson, an elderly woman whom I met accidentally on a foggy February day. She was to prod me to find myself again, even when I thought all was lost."
In her prologue, Ms. Anderson tells us that she hopes the readers of this book will be mentored by some of Joan Erikson's wisdom in much the same way she was mentored by the woman who used to say "The important thing is to share what you know. Be generative and pass it on. That is what makes all the difference."
To read this book is to discover validation of the desire to find true wisdom and inner awareness. To savor this book is to be enriched by the uncommon wisdom of a remarkable woman and to experience the sheer joy of a friendship extroidinaire.
by Lee Ambrose
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
 Coming Out of the Fog January 3, 2008
Scrambling along rocks on a Cape Cod beach, following the sound of a foghorn, Joan Anderson suddenly finds herself almost nose-to-nose with an old woman she doesn't know. The stranger turns out to be Joan Erikson, wife of psychoanalyst Erik Erikson. Feeling an immediate connnection, the two Joans rapidly become close companions.
Joan Anderson has come to the Cape, running away from home, to re-evaluate her marriage and the direction of her life. Always a people-pleaser, she now feels exhausted and confused, no longer fulfilled by family or her career as the author of children's books.
Seeking a small town nursing home where her husband will receive attentive care during his final days, Joan Erikson has relocated to the same town. Her running-away came years ago when she went, a young girl alone, to Europe to dance with Isadora Duncan, at a time when such things simply weren't done.
Anderson's book is the account of the two women's blossoming friendship and the lessons they learn from one another. She recounts a multitude of conversations which took place as they go about their daily activities, walking the beaches, weaving cloth to represent the stages of their lives, sharing meals and ideas.
Erikson urges Anderson to make time for play in her life each day, to get out of her head and into her body. Now in her nineties, she demonstrates the benefits of keeping one's body machinery well-functioning. The friendship reinvigorates her and she excitedly begins to rework and build on the pioneering work on life stages she shared with her husband.
Meanwhile Anderson grows in confidence and clarity of purpose to the point that she can hike the Inca trail to Machu Picchu, a feat that would have been impossible for her before. She walks back into her marriage but as a changed person, more independent, more aware of who she is and the person she wants to become.
Erikson quotes a Japanese scholar: In order not to fail in the end, you have to be dependent on yourself, and know that you can handle things, and most importantly, bring a little humor into the despair. Lightness, imagination, flexibility-these are the things that go into making a new start.
And so, make a new start they do, each growing from the other, becoming stronger and more vibrant in the process.
 Worth reading December 1, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Overall, the book is worth reading. And although I appreciate the relationship and deep friendship portrayed, it does tend to go overboard and become sappy at times.
This is a book you want all your girlfriends to read and cherish September 28, 2007
Joan Anderson captures a woman's heart and soul. This a book for any woman who is searching to find herself and her place in the world. I feel my life has been enriched by reading this lovely story. Joan Erickson is the wise woman we all long to sit at the feet of and perhaps some day become. I have bought copies for all my women friends. Thank you Joan Anderson for sharing your story and Friendship with Joan Erickson with the world!
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