“‘Dear old world,” she murmured, ‘you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.'”
Lucy Maud Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables)
Anne of Green Gables is the taste of a crisp apple on a harvest afternoon. It is straw hats and lace curtains and long walks in the countryside roaming the depths of your imagination, collecting wildflowers to tuck in your hair and seashells to keep lined on your windowsill. It’s wearing puffed sleeves for no reason except that it makes you happy, staying up late to watch the stars, and baking an apple crisp from scratch in your kitchen. It’s homegrown love for the small town you grew up in, for all your family and friends.
The author of the Anne of Green Gables series, Lucy Maud Montgomery, was a beautiful soul, and her love of beauty in everyday life spilled over into her stories. Every one of her novels is packed full of descriptions of Prince Edward Island, the breathtaking natural landscape, the going-ons of the small town Avonlea, characterization of quirky folks encountered, and all the lovely moments of a simple life. I think that’s one of the reasons I always find myself coming back to the Anne of Green Gables series: these books remind me of the beauty of life.
Romanticize Your Life
“The world calls them its singers and poets and artists and storytellers; but they are just people who have never forgotten the way to fairyland.”
When you live in Anne’s world of daydreams and fantasies, the world becomes a wondrous place. A dark forest becomes the Haunted Wood. A pond becomes the Lake of Shining Waters. The sky is a cathedral, every abandoned house has a tragic ghost story, and kindred spirits aren’t hard to find. The world seems enchanted after all.
For many of us, the world loses its luster as we grow up. And yet, it’s not the world that has lost its enchantment; it’s ourselves. We learn to iron out our imaginations with routines and responsibilities. In a society that praises scientific fields over the arts, we tend to disregard imagination as foolish and childlike, as if it somehow less mature or valuable than fields like mathematics or science. I believe there’s a place for both in the world; that means the arts have immense value that can’t be quantified. Imagination is essential to humanity.
If you find yourself withering from a lack of wonder in the world, take little steps towards finding magic in everyday life again. Find poetry in the glow of sunlight, in the bustle of city streets, and in all your favorite things. Name inanimate objects; give them personalities. Embrace silence. Go on long walks by the oceanside and imagine you’re pining for a long-lost love across the sea. Pick apples in the orchard, eat them fresh off the branch. Stargaze from your backyard. Memorize poetry and recite it for dramatic effect at the opportune moment. Read classics. Learn new words so you can express all your wonderful thoughts.
Believe that there is a beauty and a tragic romance waiting around every corner. Fuel your imagination with reading fairy tales and poetry again, and the world becomes more colorful. Romance isn’t irresponsible, it’s essential to cultivating your soul. Romanticize your life, and you will become lovelier for it.
Don’t Be Afraid to Be Passionate
“People laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas, you have to use big words to express them, haven’t you?”
Don’t be afraid to love the things that light you up. Yeah, puffed sleeves (or their modern equivalent: stickers on your hydroflask) are quirky—but why should that mean you can’t love it?
There will always be Josie Pye’s in the world. But it’s not cool to hate on things, to criticize someone else for having an opinion that’s different than your own, or to make others feel rotten about themselves. You know what’s cool? Kindness. Compassion. A willingness to be vulnerable enough to love something without being dissuaded by others’ opinions.
I love Anne’s unabashed love for the beauty of nature, academic ambition, stories and poetry, grand words, learning, finery, and the loveliness of her dear hometown. Passion is a beautiful thing. It means you’re excited about life. You’re learning to love. Whatever lights you up? Fill your life with more of that.
Today is a Gift
“Isn’t it wonderful to think that tomorrow is a new day, with no mistakes in it yet?”
Every day is a chance at a new beginning. Every morning you wake up is a fresh slate, a whole new day full of beauty to be discovered. Even if you think you know exactly what will happen in a day, it never turns out the way you expect. There’s always a plot twist hiding somewhere—and sometimes, that plot twist is a burst of unexpected happiness.
I like to imagine that God plants happiness like wildflowers through the day, and living is a treasure hunt to gather them all up—the birdsong when you walk to your car, the feeling of sunlight peeking through autumn fog, getting lost in a new book, the feeling of a job done well. All day, I’m collecting up the happy things until I have a pretty bouquet.
Sometimes I forget just how much agency we have over our lives. It all begins with our thoughts. We get out of life what we look for. If I train myself to look for the joy in things, then that’s what I’ll find. The pastor at my childhood church used to say that “Happiness is a feeling, but joy is a choice.” It’s like Anne said at the end of Anne of Avonlea: “I don’t know what’s around the corner, but I’m going to believe that the best does.”
Today is fresh, with no mistakes in it. It’s a clean canvas, ready for a watercolor. Isn’t that a beautiful thought?
Fill Your Heart With Nature
“Listen to the trees, talking in their sleep…what nice dreams they must have!”
Two years ago, when I visited Prince Edward Island, I remember feeling a visceral transformation at the pace of life. It was easy to imagine Lucy Maud Montgomery taking a walk down Lover’s Lane, lost in her own head full of stories even as she listened to the chittering birds and watched a squirrel dash across the road and felt the dappled sunlight dance through the aspen trees.
There’s something about getting out in nature that is restorative to the soul and rekindling to the imagination. Get outside as often as you can. Anytime you begin to feel stale or stagnant…step outside, breathe the fresh air, feel the cool autumn sunlight on your skin. Take walks in the woods, on the rugged coastline, in the mountains. Feel your soul come awake to the world.
Wonder
“Isn’t it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive—it’s such an interesting world. It wouldn’t be half so interesting if we knew all about everything, would it? There’d be no scope for imagination then, would there?”
Perhaps my favorite thing about Anne Shirley is her insatiable curiosity for the world around her. When you read these books, you’re drawn into her world and her way of seeing everything—and everything she sees is sparkling with wide-eyed wonder.
When you think about how much there is to learn about any given field of interest—theology, biology, math, architecture, poetry, language, kinesiology, anatomy, literature, programming, engineering, films, astronomy—the infinity of knowledge to be learned is staggering. You could do nothing but read books for the rest of your life, and you would barely have scratched the surface of all the books there are to read.
Beyond even her academic curiosity, Anne also embraces her willingness to believe the world’s secrets and charms. All it takes is a ghost story told by firelight, a heartsick Irish folk song, a daydream, a powerful poem…and suddenly, that sense of sehnsucht returns and we are re-enchanted with the beautiful mystery of life.
Anne of Green Gables always feels like coming home, and so, in many ways, does October. For all its spookiness and ghostly enchantment, October is one of the coziest, most colorful months of the year. We’ve reached the brink of dark autumn now. With longer nights this time of year, we begin turning inward, to stories and music and art and the restless waters of our soul. It’s a season of wonder, beauty, and thanksgiving—and most especially, of imagination!
<3 Olivia Grace
