Spilled Sunshine
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A World with Octobers
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Reading Lucy Maud, Part 2
(We do not lack for red-headed beauties in these parts.)
This was my summer of Lucy Maud Montgomery. I want to share thoughts and a few choice quotes from each of the Anne books in this post..
Anne of Green Gables
“Oh, Marilla,” she exclaimed one Saturday morning, coming dancing in with her arms full of gorgeous boughs, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. it would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn’t it?”
All things great are wound up with all things little.
Anne of Avonlea
I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.
Anne of the Island
Humor is the spiciest condiment in the feast of existence. Laugh at your mistakes but learn from them, joke over your troubles but gather strength from them, make a jest of your difficulties but overcome them.
There is so much in the world for us all if we only have eyes to see it, and the heart to love it, and the hand to gather it to ourselves—so much in men and women, so much in art and literature, so much everywhere in which to delight, and for which to be thankful.
Anne of Windy Poplars
Anne had a horror of being petty.
Even the commonplaces had been made lovely. Every bit of wire fencing was a wonder of crystal lace.
Anne’s House of Dreams
They had a sort of talent for happiness, them two.
I LIKE to be alone now and then, just to think over things and TASTE them. But I love friendship—and nice, jolly little times with people.
Anne of Ingleside
Susan’s mince pies are poems, just as her apple pies are lyrics.
Only sneaks, Jem had said once, tried to get out of bargains.
Rainbow Valley
Every LMM book needs a cranky reprobate: enter Norman Douglas. Spunky Faith Meredith challenges old Norman Douglas and the sparks fly. it’s a jolly good time.
Where can folks get better acquainted than over a meal table?
The more we love the richer life is—even if it is only some little furry or feathery pet.
Rilla of Ingleside
So much that is satisfying can be found in this book: the growth of Rilla; her fostering of the infant Jims, a war-baby; the understanding and affection between Rilla and her brother Walter; the long vigil of Dog Monday waiting for his master to return.
Rilla, published in 1921, offers a clear view of life in Canada during the war. This title belongs on more WWI lists.
When we have to do a thing, Mr. Dr. dear, we can do it.
I am not, proceeded Susan firmly, going to lament or whine or question the wisdom of the Almighty any more as I have been doing lately. Whining and shirking and blaming Providence do not get us anywhere. We have just got to grapple with whatever we have to do whether it is weeding the onion patch or running the Government. I shall grapple.
Unexpectedly Amusing
It started with a Klutz Pop Bead Critters Activity Book that I got for visiting kids to play with. Seldom is there a toy, game, book or activity that has universal appeal. But every kid that has crossed our threshold has had a blast putting the beads together. They find the different textures, sizes and colors appealing.
When I saw the small success of the beads that came with the book, I got this bucket of B. Pop-Arty Beads. Gracious! I now know what it feels to be a rock star! My husband and I try hard to buy toys without batteries. Especially fun toys without batteries. And this fits the ticket.
Because I am in essence a second-grader whose hand flies up when the teacher asks who wants to be first at show-and-tell, I am compelled to share this with you. I don’t think I’ve ever before written a blog post about a toy.
Two things:
1) For folks without children in the home, it always helps to have a space for things that interest kids. In my growing up years there it was the bottom drawer of a sideboard in our dining room. It can be a bag, a tote, a box, a basket or a bin. Something for the kids says “You are welcome!” in a language they can understand.
2) Christmas is 12 weeks away. Just sayin’.
Reading Lucy Maud, Part 1
(She could be Anne-with-an-e except she’s no orphan. She’s the cherished youngest.)
HOW did I make it through my youth without reading Anne of Green Gables? There is no explanation. I first met Anne Shirley after I was married. I gasped at the nonstop sentence of Anne talking to Matthew Cuthbert on the way from the train station. A while later I read Anne of Avonlea; I birthed sons, abandoned Anne, and started reading Henty.
Each year I pick an author and read as much of his/her work as possible. My default would be to hunt down every last novel, bibliography and online essay. But I’m trying to get over my compulsive tendencies. Last year, I read through Carol Ryrie Brink of Caddie Woodlawn fame.
So this is my summer of Lucy Maud, my summer of Anne, my summer of Rilla, my summer of Emily. [Yes, I’m holding on to summer until September 21!] I’ve read print books and Kindle; I’ve listened to dramatized versions and I’ve listened to the 147 short stories on Librivox. I could only listen to a few at a time in order to keep my nostalgic blood sugar from spiking.
There are recurring motifs in Montgomery’s work: the shape of noses; imaginations; emotionally isolated orphans; friendships; cold and impregnable aunts, a high view of education; music; words; books; flowers; the ocean. Lucy Maud’s characters share a palpable yearning, an intense desire to be wanted, to belong.
Reading through Montgomery’s work, one would think the mortality rate of birthing mothers to be 90%. Mothers aren’t the only thing missing in this fiction. Strong fathers—strong men— are on the endangered list. Fathers are either absent, dying, or overseas. I had hoped that Gilbert Blythe might be the exception in Rilla of Ingleside; alas, he is the absent father caring for distant patients.
What about Matthew Cuthbert? Matthew is sweet, Matthew is empathetic, but I wouldn’t call him strong in the masculine sense. In my mind I’ve been kicking around the matriarchal nature of most of the households in these stories. And wondering how that colors the narrative.
Who stood out in my mind?
I loved the harum-scarum Meredith family (in Rainbow Valley) headed by the absent-minded widower, the Rev. John Knox Meredith. The descriptions of a brood of lively siblings in a motherless house rang true to my experience in such a family. But it could not be denied that there was something very homelike and lovable about the Glen St. Mary manse in spite of its untidiness.
It goes without saying that I love Anne. I was drawn to Rilla, the youngest Blythe who discovers she has gumption and at fifteen raises a war-baby. Emily was endearing, an aspiring writer whose coping mechanism of thinking how she would write the scene got her through many tongue lashings.
The short stories are not Chekhov. I’ve come to the conclusion that the short story is the one of the most difficult genres. A few of her good ones make it word-for-word into one of her novels.
I have more thoughts. I will corral them and sort them into categories. And sift through the heaping pile of quotes I’ve highlighted. It has been a fun reading summer. And there are still more books to read!
You Are Welcome
Because you’re going to thank me for this!
Lucy Maud Montgomery (author of Anne of Green Gables) read in a Scottish brogue! A thick, rolling, textured brogue. Oh, man. It’s glorious.
Here’s what you do. Click on this link. The reader you want is Beverly Scott. In this group of short stories she reads 02 – An Unpremeditated Ceremony and 04 – Elizabeth’s Child.
Happy listening!
Song of Joy and Strength
Creation begins with song. We know this because God asks Job where he was when God laid the foundations of the earth, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.
Singing and joy go together like champagne and bubbles: they are linked in God’s Word, in our response, and particularly in your life, Joy.
Marriage is a song.
Sometimes you will sing in unison, one voice high and one low. Other times you will sing in two-part harmony. The fugue employs different voices expressing the same theme in succession, weaving in and out, finally coming together at the end.
When quarrels come there will be discordant notes, squawks, squeaks and growls. As your arguments mature, they will sound less like a cat landing on a keyboard and more like two strong notes pushing together for resolution. A song without tension would be bland, and ultimately difficult to listen to. Some marriages avoid conflict, moving apart into parallel melodies that aren’t related. The tension of sustained chords comes when notes are close together. Tension is not bad unless it is unresolved. Think of a four-part Amen, stopping on the AH–.
The time signature determines the rhythm. One of you can’t play a waltz (3/4 time) while the other is marching to the 4/4 beat. Curt and I tried that this summer: it led to hiccups, glitches and confusion. Follow Stephen’s lead, secure in the knowledge that different seasons of life will bring new rhythms.
You are starting your life together in a major key. Your wedding will be a minuet: a bright and cheerful celebration. But, in your life, minor keys will come; grief is a part of all of our lives. Your song can reflect glory in both major and minor keys. Accept the minor key seasons as a gift.
In one of Anthony Trollope’s books, a wife obeys every word her husband says with a treasonous attitude. He is a piece of work, but that’s not the point. She is icy, remote, but, in her mind correct and proper. This illustrates how vital our tone is. Timbre is the musical term for tone color. When Stephen tells you something, you respond “You did?” The tone of these words could communicate scorn, apathy, delight, or shock. May the tone of your marriage be as rich and warm as a cello or a saxophone.
Beautiful music requires practice, discipline and work. When you run across a glitch in a musical piece, you know that is where you need to slow down, understand the notes and repeat it again and again and again and again! There’s not much glamor in practice, but faithful diligence brings rewards.
Do you remember the flash mob videos in a shopping mall? It is always a delight to see a bystander perk up her ears, look around in wonderment and then settle in with a smile to see what happens. People stop talking, they stop walking, they stop shopping and they watch and listen. This is what your marriage will do when you are singing in tune, making a harmonious sound. Your song will invite others to the Music.
I began with the pairing of singing and joy. Singing and strength is another common coupling. In some cultures, singing is a necessary component of work. Think the chain gangs in O, Brother Where Art Thou?, slave ships, cotton fields. Singing keeps you in sync, it helps you work harder than you thought possible. In Estonia the folk songs liberated the country from communism. Song brings the strength of unity.
Joy, everyone agrees that you are perfectly named. And, your new last name reflects joy and strength.
Song is powerful. It reaches into the nooks and crannies of our souls. It fortifies us; it loosens us up. It bedazzles our senses; it thrills our spirit; it expresses our worship.
It changes us.
~ The Lord is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation. ~
Given a New Life
Three brothers loving their baby sister, Aria
::Our son led worship on Sunday. These are his words::
Over the last several months, the boys have had a ritual of kissing the baby goodnight before bed. We will all be in the living room together and they will one-by-one come through and kiss the belly and say “I love you, baby sister.”
So we have three boys and two parents that love this baby before she is born. Before we have held her, before we have looked into her big eyes, before we have seen her smile, before she can walk, before she can talk, before she can do anything that would earn our love—she has been loved.
Our Lord has done the same thing for us only on a far greater and way more awesome scale. Paul tells us in Ephesians that before the creation of the world God chose us to be in Him. This means that before we were born, before creation even, God chose to redeem, justify, sanctify, and glorify us in Jesus Christ.
[…] When we see this grace, we should respond with humility and praise and worship. We have been given a hope and a confidence that apart from God cannot be found. We have been given a new life, a new life made to glorify and bring Him honor. This is the God that we’ve come to worship this morning, so let us worship with every ounce of our being. Let us live our lives, worshiping him in everything that we do.
Rejoice with us in the birth this morning of our granddaughter, Aria! (After three sons and six grandsons, we are thrilled that Aria has joined our family.)
Poetry in Motion
We were two twenty-something girls enthusing over football. Lisa said, A well-executed play is poetry in motion. Surely, I had heard the phrase poetry in motion before; The Wind in the Willows was one of my favorite childhood reads. But it was then that it grabbed me.
The beauty of coordinated movement makes my heart sing.
A five-way intersection near my house can be a concert or it can be disconcerting. When two left turns, two straight-aheads and one right turn flow—without a brake or jerk—, I spend the next mile with my mental math compass recreating the scene on (mental) paper, drawing arcs and straight lines, pleased down to the perimeters.
Planes landing, taking off, banking: a colorful three-dimensioned x-y graph.
Canadian geese writing vees in the sky.
Mallards settling on the water.
Ping pong and volleyball volleys that make you forget to breathe.
A homely illustration. My husband and I regularly invite people over for dinner. Like the five-way stop, an evening can flow smoothly or it’s a herky-jerky highwire.
On fluid days we prepare food, space, and settings with intuitive understanding. Curt gets home, takes a reading of the climate, and does the next thing. After people leave, the cleanup begins with the tacit agreement to keep on until the chores run out. Or until we say, “Good enough!” The warp and woof of well-executed teamwork is satisfying.
Where do you see poetry in motion?
Celebrate Good Times
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We love celebrations. And, might I shamelessly say, our community does them up right. Matthew and Ellen’s Oregon reception had the right ingredients: slanting sun, Wallowa Lake, snow-capped mountains, tables avalanched with food, a keg of beer, no one drunk, a live band, dancing, good cheer. God is good and we are thankful.
A Living Pencil 
