Little Women: Thursday's Things #24

I just finished re-reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and thoroughly enjoyed it - probably more so than the first time I read it years ago! [As an aside, I read it on my new Kobo e-reader :)]. I fancy myself to be a little like the character Jo, although she was much more literary than I am. Anyways, the experiences Jo had really touched me. Meg had gone and married, Amy was off in Europe with Aunt March and Beth had died leaving Jo home alone with her parents. Marmee understands her longings and comforts her with these words:  "Forgive me, dear, I can't help seeing that your are very lonely, and sometimes there is a hungry look in your eyes that goes to my heart. [But] There are plenty to love you, so try to be satisfied with father and mother, sisters and brothers, friends and babies, till the best lover of all comes to give you your reward."

By and by Jo roamed away upstairs, for it was rainy, and she could not walk. A restless spirit possessed her, and the old feeling came again, not bitter as it once was, but a sorrowfully patient wonder why one sister should have all she asked, the other nothing. It was not true; she knew that, and tried to put it away, but the natural craving for affection was strong, and Amy's happiness woke the hungry longing for someone to "love with heart and soul, and cling to while God let them be together."

Shortly after in the story Jo is reunited with her dear Mr. Bhaer after he travelled across the country to seek her out. What happened was that Mr. Bhaer had by chance seen one of her poem's published in a newspaper and in it there was one little verse that seemed to call to him:

"Jo" on the next lid, scratched and worn,
And within a motley store
Of headless dolls, of schoolbooks torn,
Birds and beasts that speak no more;
Spoils brought home from the fairy ground
Only trod by youthful feet,
Dreams of a future never found, 
Memories of a past still sweet;
Half-writ poems, stories wild,
April letters, warm and cold,
Diaries of a willful child,
Hints of a woman early old;
A woman in a lonely home, 
Hearing, like a sad refrain--
"Be worthy, love, and love will come,"
In the falling summer rain. 

"Yes," Mr. Bhaer added earnestly, "I read that, and I think to myself, she has a sorrow, she is lonely, she would find comfort in true love. I haf a heart full, full for her; shall I not go and say, 'If this is not too poor a thing to gif for what I shall hope to recieve, take it in Gott's name?"

"And so you came to find that it was not too poor, but the one precious thing I needed," whispered Jo.

I really like how Jo wasn't afraid to show her emotions in her writings that she had published publicly. Sometimes I think we are too reticent to show our true emotions, our deepest feelings to those we care for around us. Of course there is a time and place for everything and discretion is needed, but in order to bear one another's burdens we need to know what the burdens are! The churches may be full of outwardly well put-together people, but what kinds of hurts are being hid behind a polite smile? The hurt of a distant partner, empty arms that long to embrace a child of their own, verbally abusive parents, the longing to fit in, children who have gone astray, the desire for a spouse, being misunderstood, raising a child alone, a struggling marriage, rebellious teenagers, financial difficulties, being out of work, sickness of a family member... and the list could go on.  

Anyways, I'm not sure where this post is leading to :), but if you have any pre-teen or teenage girls, encourage them to read this gem of a book!