The Bend in the Road

I just finished reading Anne of Green Gables, a favorite of a friend of mine and a fun, easy read between book-club books. And it really was a wonderful book. I've still the rest of the series to finish- and I truly do look forward to finding out what other adventures lay in Anne's future- but this book stands alone just fine as is. It definitely makes you think about an older time, when things were simpler but responsibilities came earlier in life. The writing is wonderful and the young girl who went on and on about fairies and other imaginings earlier in the book is speaking sensibly and maturely by the end without you ever noticing the shift. And as she and her peers go on- at the age of 16!- to begin their adult lives as college scholars, farmers or ministers, or even teachers to other children just barely younger than themselves, it really makes you wonder if today's youth could grow up that quickly if the times still called for it!

But more than anything, I just enjoyed reading about a "kindred spirit", as Anne would put it- a young girl who daydreams and loves reading, and has such big plans for herself in the world. And the closing passage touched my heart more than anything... as if it was meant just for me to read it. (And after all, aren't all things truly enjoyable in any innocent way sent by God as gifts to us, and therefore mightn't He include lessons for us among those as well?)

And so, in order to save it for myself as well as put it out there for anyone else that might get some sort of joy from it, I'll include it here:

Anne's horizons had closed in since the night she had sat there after coming home from Queen's; but if the path set before her feet was to be narrow she knew that flowers of quiet happiness would bloom along it. The joy of sincere work and worthy aspiration and congenial friendship were to be hers; nothing could rob her of her birthright of fancy or her ideal world of dreams. And there was always the bend in the road!

"'God's in his heaven, all's right with the world,'" whispered Anne softly. softly.