Musings on Plum Puffs

Like yesterday, inspiration came from L. M. Montgomery. I can hear Anne in my head again...only this time her words are from the movies. Anne seems to have the incredible knack for coming up with the best lines for when you are at your worst:

Anne Shirley: My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes. That's a sentence I read once and I say it over to comfort myself in these times that try the soul.

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Anne Shirley: This is the most tragical thing that has ever happened to me.

Anne Shirley: Can't you even IMAGINE you're in the depths of despair?

Anne Shirley: Tears don't hurt like the ache does.

Marilla Cuthbert: You set your heart too much on frivolous things and then crash down into despair when you don't get them.
Anne Shirley: I know. I can't help flying up on the wings of anticipation. It's as glorious as soaring through a sunset... almost pays for the thud.
Marilla Cuthbert: Well, maybe it does. But I'd rather walk calmly along and do without flying AND thud.

And my personal favorite...

Anne Shirley: Plum puffs won't minister to a mind diseased in a world that's crumbled into pieces.

I had a real discussion with myself today. It is a habit of mine to be far more dramatic in my thoughts than what is probably called for in any given situation, and I called myself on it. I was upstairs crying and the line about plum puffs suddenly came to mind. And it caused me to think. "...a mind diseased in a world that's crumbled into pieces." I may be sad, I may be confused, my heart may be hurt...but my mind is not a mind diseased. I have a promise from God that I have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a SOUND mind. And is my world crumbled to pieces? Hardly. Oh oh! Another line just hit me... "all it does is delay it for awhile". WHERE is that from??!?! But that's the truth. I may not be a mother now, but to throw in another dramatic woman's line, "tomorrow is another day!"

Ah, its from The Princess Bride. "Death cannot stop true love, all it does is delay it for awhile." A perfect thought isn't it?

So I can make no promises that I will not continue to fly up on the wings of anticipation, since it is quite glorious and DOES almost pay for the thud. Besides, I do not agree with Marilla that "I'd rather walk calmly along and do without flying and thud"...That's frightfully boring. But I believe there is a place to fall that is higher than despair and, while it still results in a thud, it is a place of peace and safety...The arms of God. So like a little bird just learning to use her wings, I will continue to fly in anticipation and when I face "times that try the soul" I will choose to believe that I am in the hands of a loving Father and He knows the plans He has for me...Plans not to harm me, but to give me a future and a hope. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

"It was three o'clock in the morning – the wisest and most accursed hour of the clock. But sometimes it sets us free."
— L.M. Montgomery (The Blue Castle)