Anne's House of Dreams

Today was a beautiful and relaxing day. It snowed all morning, leaving a good 4 or 5 inches everywhere through Calgary. My first task was to face our sewing machine. When Grandma Hutch's basement flooded a couple years ago, the insurance company got her a new sewing machine, but it was a computerized one, complete with automatic needle threader that takes two pages in the instruction manual to explain. It overwhelmed her so much, that we gave her ours, but it overwhelmed me so much I hadn't used it yet. I have just been going over to Grandma Wichert's to sew. But today it was conquered. It actually has some pretty nifty stitches pre-programmed in it (see pretty flowers to the right), so I messed with that. Then all afternoon I sat listening to the Anne's House of Deams audiobook and knitting Jessica's birthday present.

Anne's House of Dreams is a continuation of after Anne of Green Gables becomes Mrs. Anne Blythe. They move to Four Winds for Gilbert's job, and once there she meets Ms. Cornelia, a woman who is convinced men are lazy pigs, Captain Jim, a good-hearted old sailor who has a knack for telling stories, and Leslie, a sad girl who has spent the last 13 years nursing a man who she just found out is not her husband (sort of complicated). In true Anne of Green Gables spirit, there is beautiful imagery throughout the entire book.

An important lesson I got from the book is reassurance of something I have been pondering over the last year. At one point, Leslie says:

" 'You know me now, Anne- the worst of me- the barriers are all down. And you still want to be my friend?'
Anne looked up through the birches, at the white paper-lantern of a half moon drifting downwards to the gulf of sunset. Her face was very sweet.
'I am your friend and you are mine, for always,' she said."

Pastor Jim used to say you can't love someone unless they know you. I don't mean to say go tell everyone everything you've done in your life, but something I've realized through making new friends and life in general is you have to let go of some of your pride and let them help you through things. It makes you feel better because the burden is now shared, and it makes the other person feel better because they were trusted into your confidence for advice. Little Carrot Tops knows that the true mark of friendship is when you know the worst, and not that you don't care or are blind to it, but that it doesn't matter.