Friday, April 22, 2011
(Anne wrote this diary entry approximately around the time of the events of chapters 18-19 of "By a Simple Twist of Fate")
Dear Diary,
Since today was Good Friday and the university is closed for the long weekend, Gilbert and I are taking a little getaway to visit his parents in Avonlea. It was a beautiful day for a drive ā the morning was sunny and clear without any rain for a change. We headed out early expecting to encounter some holiday weekend traffic, but the roads weren't crowded and we ended up arriving much sooner than we expected. We found John and Marilla in the middle of their at-home exercise routine. š Since we had been driving for 3.5 hours, Gilbert suggested that it would feel good to move around so we both attempted to join them. ("Attempted" being the operative word here.)
It always impresses me the purposeful way that Gilbert's parents have decided to keep physically and mentally active. I am used to my mother's extraordinary industry in everything she does (travel, writing, hiking, etc.) but it seems like that is just who she IS and who she has always been. Whereas, Marilla and John have chosen to become this way.
They explained to me a number of years ago that they have long observed the general trend for retirees to age poorly once they are no longer involved in their careers. Therefore, even before they personally retired, Marilla and John decided that they were NOT going to fall into those same traps. They are constantly reading both paper and online journals on a variety of subjects as well as keeping up with current news events around the world, not just here in Eastern Canada. (For example, I noticed the map of New Zealand on their desk today. They explained that they had been referring to the map while reading an update about the ongoing recovery efforts from February's earthquake in Christchurch. I had almost forgotten about that disaster ā yet the death toll is now over 150 people and some are still unaccounted for.) Marilla always emphasizes that when major events or natural disasters happen, they try not to simply focus on the negative (otherwise it could really make them depressed). Instead, they choose to learn something new about the science involved in the situation ā meteorology, structural engineering, geography, etc.
And Marilla and John do a number of things to stay as agile and healthy as possible. They certainly put me to shame today as they finished up their exercise routine! Not only do they take exercising much more seriously than I do, but they do many of their exercises while balanced on a BOSU ball. I have a hard time doing squats on solid ground and here I watched the two of them easily do squats, leg lifts, and hand weight exercises all while perched on their BOSU balls! Apparently, many seniors are injured because of issues relating to lack of balance, but also because their bodies have forgotten how to quickly respond to sudden changes in stability. So Marilla and John are doing specific routines targeted to strengthen their core muscles, balance, and coordination. After a bit of cajoling, they allowed me to take some pictures so that I can brag about THEM to their grandchildrenā¦instead of the typical other way around.
Earlier in the day, Marilla had put together a big pot of her famous bean soup and had put ingredients in her bread maker (the one we got her as a gift a few years ago) so that fresh bread would be ready for dinner. The heavenly smells coming from the kitchen taunted me from the moment we walked in (yet another reason exercising was hard to do). Although I can certainly hold my own in the kitchen alongside both Marilla and Joy (our family's best chefs), I do always enjoy seeing Gilbert's contentedness when eating his mother's home cooking. Of course, she apologized for serving us a salad fixed with store-bought greens, but it is much too early and cold still for her beautiful summer garden to be anything but wishful thinking at this point.
After our early family dinner, Gilbert and I took inspiration from John and Marilla's exercise routine and decided to head out for an evening walk. It was a great idea, butā¦our exercise benefit might have been somewhat negated when we ended up simply wandering through one of our favorite rambles ā the Hester Grey Memorial Garden. This is certainly not the time of year to enjoy the rosebushes that she planted so many years ago (they still just look like barren twigs at this point), but I hold their beauty in my mind's eye throughout every winter and spring until the rose blossoms return with the warm summer days. We sat for a while on the bench under the leafless apple tree - reflecting about life and our parents and our children (although I had to redirect the conversation when it was obvious that he wanted to ask me about Rilla). Taking a selfie together was a great way to sideline that subject. Andā¦the picture turned out quite good of us (it really captured Gilbert's smile!) so I think I may print it and frame it. I also took a picture of the L. M. Montgomery quote engraved on the plaque at the center of the rose garden: "I read in a book once that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but I've never been able to believe it. I don't believe a rose WOULD be as nice if it was called a thistle or a skunk-cabbage." I definitely need to find a way to use that quote in classā¦the subject of words as names/labels and our emotional connection to them would make for an interesting discussionā¦
Ok. I'm back again, Diary. I got lost there a few moments thinking about that idea for class. But back to my evening recapā¦sitting with Gilbert in such a peaceful and cherished place tonight was really quite perfect until we both started getting chilled. (I really am more than ready for summer to supplant these still too-cool nights.) Thankfully, John had a small fire going in their fireplace, so I warmed up nicely when we arrived back. As almost required by Blythe family tradition, we engaged in our "boys vs. girls" Scrabble gameā¦or should I say, intense Scrabble battle! It was a fairly close gameā¦until Marilla used all of her letters in one go and placed "checkbox" on a triple word score AND got the 50 points bonus for her bingo. What a brilliant play! Needless to say, that move single-handedly catapulted us "girls" to victory! The boys are (as expected) demanding a rematch in the morning, but I am hoping that the weather will be lovely and we can go out for an island drive and maybe even head to the shore for a bit. That's my official excuse for begging out of the Scrabble rematch. But Diary, I confess that I really just want to be able to hold that huge win over Gilbert's head for a while. š (The kids definitely didn't inherit their competitiveness from meā¦never!) And with that, I wish you a good night.