Catching up with an old friend

I love books.  Particularly old books.  There is nothing as comforting as the smell and the feel of a favorite, well-loved book.  While I understand the convenience of them new-fangled e-readers (and honestly, I probably will get one sooner rather than later) reading a physical book is a special experience that can't be duplicated.  Books are friends.

Recently, I've catching up with one of my old friends.  Miss Anne Shirley and I have enjoyed being reacquainted.  I received the Anne of Green Gables series when I was in the first grade.  I was a bit of a misfit with an active imagination and a vocabulary larger than my age.  While I was certainly not an orphan, my dad was very ill at the time and my mom's attentions were directed towards keeping him alive.  We had recently moved away and I had to start over in a foreign land called California.  Add to that some health problems of my brother and I felt alone at that time.  I needed a friend, and Anne and I were kindred spirits from the very start. 

It never ceases to amaze me that every time I read the Anne series, I find something to love. I laugh over the same ridiculous scrapes Anne gets into--thankfully I never dyed my hair green!--and I feel that burning competitiveness with Gilbert Blythe.  And when dear old Matthew dies I still cry. And every single time I find something new.  This time it was Anne's acceptance of her changed fate, of the "bend in the road."  She tells Marilla that she had all her ambitions and her plans (who does that resemble?) and she could see the road stretching out ahead of her.  And then, suddenly, there was a bend. She couldn't see around the bend, but she knew it had amazing opportunities too, but it was a change and she just had to see what life had in store.  I know that ten years ago, I was like Anne with my life all planned out.  And then I had one bend after another.  I really like my life now, but I never could have imagined it, and I certainly didn't accept my bends the way Anne accepted hers. (Spoiler alert--Anne's life turned out pretty darn good.  So far, mine has too, but I've planning on quite a few more chapters!)