Prince Charming?

Anne of the Island, Chapters 21-30

Hello again, Kindred Spirits- -

This week I am feeling grateful to all of you. I began this newsletter without knowing if anyone would read it and I have been delighted to be in conversation with you all these past 3 months as we read through the Anne of Green Gables series together. Thank you for reading and thank you for the comments you leave each week. Please know that even if I don’t reply to individual comments, I always read them, and I am so happy to see you interacting with each other in the comments as well! 

This week in our reading, Anne visits the place of her birth, and the kind soul living in the house lets her in to look around. This woman even knew Anne’s parents and was able to give her a few gems in the form of descriptions of them that Anne has craved her entire life. She also had a stack of about a dozen letters written between her parents that was in the house when she moved in. This is the first thing to truly bring Anne’s parents to her in any tangible form. 

Throughout the summer, Anne is surrounded by old friends, with the exception of Gilbert, a missing piece she feels but will not name to even herself. The Irvings return home for the summer and we see that Paul is growing up, just as we watched Anne do so. He is now 13!

“You must pay the penalty of growing-up, Paul. You must leave fairyland behind you.”

I found this to be one of the saddest sentiments of the series so far. Must we really leave behind fairyland once we grow up? What does this mean to you?

So much of this slow read is leading me to hold space for the little me (featured below) and to sit beside her in my day to day adult life. What would she think of my life? It is a really powerful guiding question.

She very much lived in Fairy Land and this quote stopped me in my tracks with questions. Have I left fairyland behind? When did that happen? Can I still step back there from time to time. (Before I even got to this line, I had started making plans to build a Fairy Garden in my yard this summer- - so there is at least one small way to step back into the childlike wonder and imagination).

What do these questions bring up for you? It brings us back to our first month of the read-along when I prompted you to consider your inner child. How has that inner child journey progressed as we watch Anne grow up?

Another year of college passes by and Anne has a new beau. She meets the real-life version of her imagined Prince Charming, Royal Gardner and he is head over heels for Anne. He fulfills all her romantic visions by writing poems to her and sending her flowers, but still he is no Gilbert. Anne finds herself comparing Roy to Gilbert, yet still won’t acknowledge the truth of it all. Gilbert also seems to have a new girl, Christine, who fulfills Anne’s vision of herself that never came to be, a girl with violet eyes and raven black hair.

Anne returns to Green Gables for another summer before her final year of college, and Diana’s wedding is soon approaching. Remember how Anne cried at 11 years old as she imagined Diana being married? Well the day has arrived, and there is a sorrow not quite as passionate as her childhood reaction, but nevertheless a grief for a change that will never again allow Diana and Anne to be the girlhood friends and next-door neighbors of their youth.

  “How horrible it is that people have to grow up- - and marry - - and change”. 

Next week we will complete our read of Anne of the Island! As always, thank you for reading along!

Thank you for reading

Thank you for reading and joining me on this read-along of Anne of Green Gables! 

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Your bosom friend,

Bri