favoritist movie in the whole wide world!

Tonight I opted once the family was in bed to tackle a stack of ironing and watch the end of one of my favorite favorite movies, Anne of Green Gables. First of all, that was the most ironing my poor iron has seen at one shot in over 5 yrs! I can always find more important things than ironing and usually I iron as I need something rather than ironing before I hang the clothes in the closet. It's kinda a nice feeling to have shirts in the closets that we can just grab and go now!

I am so utterly enthralled with Anne of Green Gables. I remember my mom reading me the whole series when I was little. I re-read the books several times growing up and I remember the first time I saw the movie. It was on PBS during a pledge-a-thon. I was so thrilled to see my favorite books on film, and so beautifully and accurately reproduced! It was like Anne had jumped out of the book and became real. It remains one of my favorite movies of all time. My darling husband bought the 4 disc dvd series of it for me for Valentines day. He remembered that I had gotten the movie once from the library and had stopped to look at it in Costco a few times so he got it. I cried. Yes, such a girl thing, but I did. Words cannot express what this gift meant to me. To him it was something I would enjoy, to me it was the most fitting and beloved Valentines gift I have ever received (with the exception of my engagement ring!) To me it is the epitome of romance and treasured childhood memories. To me it was a gift that said, "I know you."

Ok, so now you know my obsession with Anne and where it stems from. Tonight as I was watching disc 3 (part 2 of Anne of Green Gables The Sequel) I was just as enraptured as always. I have two favorite parts. The first is when Anne is talking to Katherine Brooks asking her to come to Green Gables for holiday. Katherine is a prickly difficult teacher who hates teaching and hates her life. She is constantly finding the negative in everything and tries to bring those around her down as well. Katherine finally accepts and says that Anne can go about her pretending to be excited and how they will have a great time. Anne responds with, "I am delighted but as for having a great time, that will be entirely up to you!" This is a lesson I tell my kids often, so often in fact that they really hate hearing it. Fun is an attitude not an activity. I had fun ironing tonight, not because ironing is fun but because I decided that I wanted to enjoy my evening. I put a time limit on myself so I wouldn't feel overwhelmed but I was enjoying my time in a quiet house with a favorite movie that I ended up ironing the entire pile! Fun was in my attitude not in my circumstances.

The other favorite part is at the end when she and Gilbert Blythe are talking about her book on Avonlea. She tells him that she will be staying in Avonlea instead of going back to teach in the town where she had been for the last year. And then she tells him this, "I went looking for my dreams outside of myself and I realized that it's not what the world holds for you, it's what you bring to it." This is pretty common for women, and I can totally relate. We women tend to romanticize things so much that we overlook the beauty all around us. I had people ask me for a couple of years before I started dating Hubby why I didn't date him. My answer was always "He's just my best friend. It would be weird to date him." I had visions of prince charming riding in on a white horse that kept me from seeing that my prince charming was standing right in front of me. For a time right after high school and until I got married, actually, I went on a romance novel boycott. I never read trashy novels, as a matter of fact they were usually Christian romance that I read. But I decided that romance novels do to women what porn does to men, they give unrealistic expectations of what you are looking for in someone special. I realized that I was so obsessed with finding the man of my dreams that I had composed in my head. In my head I had the perfect boyfriend and was perpetually disappointed when the boys I dated were not that man. I didn't realize that I loved Hubby as much as I did (and still do!) because I had a prewired prediction of what romance was. I was looking for my dreams outside of myself. You know when I realized Hubby was "the one"? One day I called him as soon as I got home from work to tell him a joke I had heard at work. As the phone rang I suddenly realized that Hubby was (and still is!) my very best friend in the whole world. He was the first person I called when I wanted to share a funny, the first I called when I had a crummy day, the first I called when I had exciting news, when I wanted to hang out, when I just needed to vent. A voice in my head said, "Didn't you always want to marry your best friend?" and a light clicked on in my head.  Hubby is my prince charming! I had so many romantic ideals that I didn't see the love of my life standing right in front of me pursuing me and romancing me!

I love the movie. I think it is the most beautiful film I have ever seen. It makes me laugh and makes me cry and makes me love my hubby even more.  Hubby is my Gilbert Blythe, the man I dreamed about my whole life, the man who pursues me, loves me and protects me. He encourages me to "write about Avonlea", to be true to myself. He, just like Gil with Anne, pursued me even when I was trying to convince us both that it could never work because we were just too good of friends. Is there anything better in the entire world than being loved for who you are and without conditions? Man am I blessed to have a husband who embodies Christs love for me, as I am and without conditions!