10.02.2014

Happy October!

Ah, October is upon us. Autumn may officially start in late September, but when people think of all things quintessentially fall (pumpkins, colored leaves, cable knit, hot cups of tea, hayrides) it's October. Additionally, I've noticed a particular quote, "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers," has been making its rounds via social media. This quote will probably be stored in Buzzfeed's growing list of "Things White Girls Will Do in the Fall," but I highly approve of its growing popularity. My reason is simply this: anything that can remind me of Anne Shirley and L.M. Montgomery's beautiful novels gives me inexplicable joy and happiness. I like to think that the strong influence of L.M. and Louisa May Alcott in my pubescent years provides a balance between wanting to be that chick in a Chanel suit on Wall Street (which is an extreme I'll never pursue) and wanting to make homemade everything and live on Prince Edward Island. I read the Anne series a little later in life (i.e. late middle school), and I fell head over heels in love. Anne was my kindred spirit, and I still remember so many little things L.M. wrote throughout the novels that I love to revisit. She dreamed the way I dreamed, and I loved being taken on the journey from her later childhood to later adulthood. I squealed when Gilbert was finally permanent in her life, I cringed at her embarrassing follies, and I sobbed when her son died in the last book. I never really had a "best" friend, person, or kindred spirit the way I saw, but in those rough years of early adolescence, characters like Anne were the best friends I lacked in reality (that sounds a lot more pathetic than it actually was, I promise!).

So, in honor of Annie and her new found fame in October, here are some of my other favorite quotes/phrases from the book
"Some people are naturally good, you know, and others are not. I'm one of the others." 
"It's been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will." 
"Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?"
"One can't stay sad for long in such an interesting world, can one?"
"Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world."
"Life is worth living as long as there's a laugh in it."
"Dreams don’t often come true, do they? Wouldn’t it be nice if they did?" 
 "If you can’t be cheerful, be as cheerful as you can."
 "Well, anyway, when I grow up, I'm always going to talk to little girls as if they were, too, and I'll never laugh when they use big words."
 "You mayn't get the things themselves; but nothing can prevent you from having the fun of looking forward to them."
"She makes me love her and I like people who make me love them. It saves me so much trouble making myself love them." 
"It's good advice, but I expect it will be hard to follow; good advice is apt to be, I think."
 "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn't it? Look at these maple branches. Don't they give you a thrill--several thrills?"
"Good night, dear Lake of Shining Waters. I always say good night to the things I love, just as I would to people. I think they like it. That water looks as if it was smiling at me."
"But I just went to work and imagined that I had on the most beautiful pale blue silk dress — because when you are imagining you might as well imagine something worth while…"
"All the Beyond was hers, with its possibilities lurking rosily in the oncoming years — each year a rose of promise to be woven into an immortal chaplet."
"Look at that sea, girls--all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn't enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds."
"I read in a book once that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but I've never been able to believe it. I don't believe a rose WOULD be as nice if it was called a thistle or a skunk cabbage."
"It is ever so much easier to be good if your clothes are fashionable." 
"We pay a price for everything we get or take in this world; and although ambitions are well worth having, they are not to be cheaply won, but exact their dues of work and self denial, anxiety and discouragement."
"It's nicer to think dear, pretty thoughts and keep them in one's heart, like treasures. I don't like to have them laughed at or wondered over." 
 Happy October, Everyone!

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