I recently re-read Anne of Green Gables after many decades and was delighted and amazed to learn Anne is still beloved by women and girls around the world. The book, first published in 1908, has never gone out of print.  Anne is a very unusual personality.  She is unique, highly imaginative, and an animist who converses with plants and animals.  The book often made me laugh out loud or brought tears to my eyes.  It is so hopeful that this character and her story still resonate profoundly with so many.

Last month I visited the Anne of Green Gables Heritage Center in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, Canada.  Hundreds of visitors tour this site daily.  We saw the large pond that Anne called, “The Lake of Shining Waters” at a second site.  Sure enough, if you watch long enough, you can see the water shine.

We also took a walk on Anne’s “Lover’s Lane”, a beautiful path through the forest, happily preserved for over a century, where we saw a Red-eyed Vireo and a Common Yellowthroat among other creatures.

Author Lucy Maud Montgomery, who wrote Anne of Green Gables, and 18 other novels, went to live with her grandparents when she was 21 months old after the death of her mother.  Her grandparents’ house was her inspiration for Green Gables, the home where 11-year old orphaned Anne went to live at the beginning of the novel. We were able to tour that house as well.

The character of Anne portrays just how full and rich the human spirit can be, in creativity and imagination, in understanding and friendship, in experiencing love of “kindred spirits” and the natural world as a deep and joyful fulfillment.