I grew up watching a made-for-TV version of The Secret Garden, and I read the book for the first time as an adult.
Is anyone writing books like this for children anymore?
I didn’t garden as a kid, but I found my way to it in my late 20s, when I was becoming more and more aware that life and career very online wasn’t filling my soul, and perhaps was withering it.
The book contains so much to inspire:
That a hidden away garden could heal and bring out the best in a neglected child.
That wonder at the natural world is essential to flourishing.
That much of what ails us requires sunshine and fresh air and the resistance of the wind to be overcome.
That the scent of a changing season is magic.
I apparently absorbed much of this belief from that movie, and by spending a lot of time outdoors myself as a kid, in the woods, cutting vines to swing across the creek like George of the Jungle.
I just finished reading the book aloud to Siena again, for the second time. We first read it when she was 5, and she liked it. At 8, she was riveted and picked up on the all the subtler themes, like the reality that a nasty child has probably experienced nasty things—but that they also are not beyond hope of blooming beautifully, given the chance.
And more than anything, that nature and wonder and kindness are exceptionally powerful.