ANSWERING ANNE'S QUESTIONS
I just started reading Anne of Green Gables to all of my children. I had started reading it to my daughter on two separate occasions but had stopped for some reason. I wasn't sure if my boys would like it but they enjoyed Little House and I love reading Anne out loud and doing the voices and getting excited about the plot, etc. so I just dove right in. My 9 year old son is really enjoying it and my daughter likes it that I'm reading one of "her" books. As I read the second chapter I thought about how Anne sees the world. Her outlook is so refreshingly naive. She looks at the world through innocent eyes and appreciates the simple beauty in everything. As Matthew drives her home from the station she barrages him with question after question. Almost all of his answers are, "Well, I dunno." Poor Matthew. I love that character so much but he didn't have much of an imagination. So I thought I'd pose Anne's questions to you gals instead. I'm sure I'll get more than, "I dunno," out of you.
1. Which would you rather be if you had the choice - divinely beautiful, dazzlingly clever or angelically good?
2. Upon coming out of the Avenue, Anne says she felt a pleasant satisfying ache in her heart. Have you ever had that kind of ache? What was it about?
3. Do you ever rename things like Anne did with the Avenue (White Way of Delight) or Barry's Pond (Lake of Shining Waters)? If you did, what would you rename and why?
4. Do things ever give you a thrill? What things?
5. Do you ever take the time to imagine the trees whispering or a brook talking?
I think it's so refreshing to just stop and observe whatever is around you - nature, your children. More often than not, I look around and get dismayed at the way things look and how they need to be improved upon or fixed. Anne has a way of noticing the inherent beauty of things, no matter how simple and commonplace. It reminds me of the Little House books where Laura describes how she and Mary would wipe the dishes and how she loved the little squeaky sound they made when they were wiped. Do we ever turn down the volume on our lives enough to even hear these things?
Have fun contemplating these questions.
7 comments:
You know, I'm going to think about this one for a while before answering it because this kind of approach to the world is so different from mine most of the time.
Hmmm...I'm going to have to think about it too. Fun! "Thinking" post too.
1. I'm sorry to say angelically good has no interest to me. And, I cannot decide if I want to be divinely beautiful or dazzlingly cleaver. Really I want both. Well, perhaps dazzlingly clever has a little more pull than the other two.
2. I am blessed to live in the country and it is beautiful here!! When I am out side there are times I look out around me pull in as much fresh air as I can and let it out slowly with complete thankfulness and satisfaction.
3. Uh, no. (Perhaps in silliness with the kids)
4. And 5. I love to stand quietly and listen to the wind move down through the trees up on the hill, across the field, through the tress near me and finally over and around me with my face towards it. It comes in waves, distant up on the hill and then blowing over me. It’s as though I can see the wind moving like a ghost. It's eerie and thrilling, and sends shivers up my spine. I love a windy day.
Okay I'm ready to answer.
1. I choose dazzlingly clever, but I think it would really be angelically good. Not in a prissy self-righteous way, but being good and obedient is important to me...it is tough to choose just one.
2. I suppose that feeling after having a baby...the beauty and ecstatic joy of this created life mixed with the weight of responsibility to care for this eternal being, their needs and prayer that they would know Jesus.
3. We call hair accessories "hair doodles" and a family I used to babysit called pacifiers "paddy-waddy-doo-dahs", so we do that sometimes...not really in a dreamy, idealistic way though.
4. A thrill. I love a bargain...a real treasure find. Connecting with people...(can you tell I'm a people person?)
5. Well...My dishwasher is L.O.U.D. and if I run it at night I lay in bed AWAKE listening to it thump out a rythmic "dun dun duh, dun dun duh, dun dun duh, dun dun duh" and pretty soon my brain hears "We will, we will wash you...dun duh...(pause)...dun duh...we will, we will wash you!" LOL (not my personal music style, but the dishwasher sings it out none the less.) So...I try to remember to run it during the day. :)
Okay...here goes, Meredith:
1. Good. Definitely good. (THe other two are a lost cause, and Jesus offers me the third, so yes...good. ~weak smile~)
2. Satisfying ache: when the kids blow the candles on the birthday cake and they all look so happy...and I am too...but aching over the passage of time too. But everday is just another one closer to eternity.
3. I seem to rename all the kids. Dumb names too:
Caleb: Tabah (what he called himself before he could say his name)
Hope: Hopi
Joshua: well...he's just Josh...and I'm not joshing ya.
Levi: Leev
Malakai: Mookie (geesh)
Shalom: Shomey....
Wish I were as eloquent as Anne!
4. A thrill?
Thinking that lil ole me REALLY and TRULY **GETS** to actually wake up beside dh!!! After these nearly a dozen years I STILL cannot believe that he picked me??!!!! Boggles my mind and makes me *giddy*
5. Do you ever take the time to imagine the trees whispering or a brook talking?
No...but I should ~big grin~
Thanks, Meredith...that was fun!
How are you doing thinking about yours?
Yes,yes I would like to see your answers Meredith.
Ok, I guess I need to answer now. I've been a bit melancholy this week, but that's another post.
1. Since I'm already the first two I guess I'd have to say angelically good. Ha, ha, you know I'm kidding, right?
2. There have been a couple soul satisfying yet fleeting moments when it seems the Lord condescends to touch my heart with an intimate knowledge of Him and His love. I ache because I want more of that.
3. The only thing I can think of is when we're going on a surprise trip to Bruester's (ice cream) we try to trick the kids and tell them we're going to the spinach shop!
4. Wow, a lot of things give me a thrill. The problem is sometimes I don't take the time to seek them out or think of them. The end of Beethoven's ninth symphony, wooden roller coasters, the end of the first movement of Bruckner's 4th (only played by the Vienna Phil. with Claudio Abbado), the birth of my children, Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, the Canadian Rockies, really good oboe playing, creme brulee, a harvest moon, and if I haven't already mentioned music - Mahler's 5th and 6th symphonies, Prokofiev's Violin Concerto, Shostakovitch, oh and last but not least live drum corps competitions.
5. This is related to the last question. I'm constantly reminding myself to do these things.
Thanks for answering.
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