In Other Words

Specifically, those of one Lucy Maud Montgomery.

L.M. Montgomery is my one true kindred author spirit. I’ve read and re-read her work since I was a little girl, and her beautifully descriptive nature passages and plucky-against-all-odds characters have shaped me immeasurably. Her best-known work is Anne of Green Gables, but my favorite is her Emily series—in fact, I have a tattoo of the first edition Emily of New Moon book cover on my left arm.

A full level of my main bookshelf is devoted to her works, and the five volumes of her selected journals dominate one end. They’re perched right next to the doorway between my living room and kitchen, so sometimes I pull one out and flip to a random entry mid-walk.

Today I got a bit more meticulous. I piled the heavy journals on the floor and paged through chronologically, searching for the best nuggets from her New Year’s entries. I was fascinated by what I found—how cyclical our hope is around this time. That she pulled pieces almost word-for-word from her personal writing and put them into her books (the first 1905 item appears in Emily of New Moon). And how one entry, written exactly 100 years ago today, starkly mirrors the current sentiment. The more things change, etc.

Here are eight pieces of L.M. Montgomery’s perspective on the precipice of a fresh year, quoted atop images I took today from a rainy walk on the trail by my cottage.