Which brings me to... Is anyone else thrilled about the Annotated Secret Garden? Granted, I love A Little Princess more than The Secret Garden, but there is something so magical about the idea of a misunderstood, unhappy child finding herself and her loves in life in a walled garden. Mary was special because she saw the garden's beauty even when it was frozen over, full of tangled, tortured vines and hard gray ground. Something stirring from within (signified in the chirp of the robin, perhaps?) called to her and let her know that the garden was "wick"-- that even though nobody else could see the potential, the life, the GREEN, it was still there just waiting to be released.Obviously I love that idea of self-discovery, but there's something about the cultivation of a sanctuary-- one whose beauty could not be appreciated by anyone else-- that I feel is necessary to development of children and adults alike. When I was a little girl, my secret place was actually a tree on my neighbor's lawn. Every time I was upset, I would pack my pink plastic suitcase, flee several yards down, and hoist myself up into the tree branches. I would sit there until my parents found me, neighbors started staring, or the position became too uncomfortable for my legs. Granted, now this is one of those "when I was six years old I was ridiculous and ran away to a tree" stories, but the point is that I needed a place that I, and only I, saw as truly special. When I was studying abroad in England it was Yorkshire, which is where, strangely, Mary Lenox travels to in The Secret Garden. In New York? Well, I am still trying to find my special place. Sometimes it's Alice's Tea Cup. Sometimes it's my English garden-styled apartment. Sometimes it's with a close friend, a glass of wine, and bad television. Most of the time though, it's a bit out of reach, a vague idea, or something I've yet to find...
1 comment:
i, too, need that secret space, and it won't surprise you to know that "the secret garden" was my favorite book growing up... i wanted my own secret garden so badly... For me it's my little womb of an apartment... i have always loved small, cocoon-like spaces... when i was a child, i used to build myself fortresses out of pillows and blankets (i was crafty at this and they were always very structurally sound) and then, once built, sit inside for hours... occasionally, i would even sleep in it, when my parents would allow... i'm so pleased to hear that alice's is one of your secret spaces...! we will go there immediately upon your return...!
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