My Anne

"You'd find it easier to be bad than good if you had red hair... People who haven't red hair don't know what trouble is."
- Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

 Most of you know that LM Montgomery is one of my very favorite authors. I have quoted The Story Girl and The Golden Road, likely Emily of New Moon and possibly The Blue Castle countless times. But has anyone noticed that I have never once quoted Anne? I think the books are well enough. I enjoy the movies mostly because they were a part of my childhood. But I have a confession to make, I am not really a huge fan of Anne. I have rarely sat to think why. Perhaps because she is the most popular? My own rebellion does kick in at odd times. Perhaps because there are too many books that the character was just taken too far? Perhaps because Anne was one of my first glimpses into someone of great imagination succumbing finally to the woes of twitterpation. After all, if it could happen to her, were any of us safe? But I think that the real reason I never found a true friend in Anne is that she and I are just too different. She is emotional and flighty, I am pretty straight foreword. She runs headlong into trouble without a second thought, I like to work things our before I start them. She is constantly concerned about her looks and what others think of her, I don't worry too much about these things....She is always crying!

So I do not see myself in Anne. Sure, I can be entertained reading her stories, but I will not feel the friendship I feel with Sara or with Emily. So to me she remains on paper....until now.

You see, I had an epiphany the other day. And it has haunted my thoughts ever since and made me want to take up the books once more. True, I am not Anne in any way shape or form....but my daughter is.

 I choose the Megan Follows Anne, because to me she is Anne. But look, can you see it? 


Right down to the red hair that matches her red rimmed eyes, the emotions, the actions before thought. The fact that she rarely MEANS to get in trouble, it seemed like a good idea at the time but oh it so rarely goes as planned. She, like Anne feels the need to know people, to take them apart as she would a machine. She delights in beauty and feels the woe of disregard. She feels very deeply and therefore assumes everyone else does too. Much to her demise as inevitably beloved playmates will eventually look to another for affirmation and entertainment, even for a moment. To her this is a kin to murder.


Ah, my Taylor has much to learn. She would probably love the movies - I believe the books would still have too many words in them. (though Anne does say - and this is for you Diana: "people laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas you have to use big words to express them, haven't you?") Perhaps Taylor and I will pick a mom and daughter day soon. We will eat popcorn and drink hot chocolate and watch the first Anne movie together. She will find much to relate to in these stories. She may learn something from the stories. At any rate, I think it will be good for her to see someone so like herself. We all need a reminder every so often that we are not alone in our quirks. Especially when one has a mother that is so unsympathetic! 

I do not always understand my Taylor. But oh she is so very loved. And she keeps me on my toes for sure! I have much to learn from Taylor. And I have a feeling that in order to do that I may need to become more like Anne. Every so often I need to care so deeply it hurts. I need to walk a roof line just to see if I can do it. Every so often I need to stop and stare a little more carefully at the beauty around me. I need to jump without looking, I need to cry.  


Your mother is a slow learner sometimes Taylor. But I am trying. In the meantime we will make one another frustrated and laugh together at just how different God made us. 

  "There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting."