Big Dreams on a Small Island--Spoken Word Given By Lloyd D. Newell

Big Dreams on a Small Island

Delivered By: Lloyd D, Newell

Every great endeavor starts small, sometimes as little more than a dream. Lucy Maud Montgomery was raised on Canada’s beautiful Prince Edward Island and loved the sights and sounds of nature. From an early age she had a vivid imagination and a burning desire to be a writer. A biographer said, “She was very much an individual, with strong opinions, even stronger emotions, and a heart full of hopes and dreams that sustained her through a lifetime of disappointments and hardships.”1 For many years she had tried to publish her poems and stories, receiving one rejection after another. She finally sold a few, saw her name in print, and that kept her going—reading and writing, learning more about writing, and then writing some more. Writing was hard work, and rejection was not easy. She said, “People envy me these bits of success and say, ‘It’s well to be you,’ and so on. I smile cynically when I hear them. They do not realize how many disappointments come to one success. They see only the successes and think all must be smooth travelling.”2 One of Maud’s fondest dreams was to publish a story about an imaginative orphan girl named Anne Shirley. Numerous publishers rejected the manuscript. Discouraged, she packed it into a hatbox and stuffed it in a closet. A year later, Maud was housecleaning when she came across the hatbox and reread her old novel. She decided that it wasn’t bad, after all. So after making some revisions, she sent it out again. This time a publisher accepted it. Anne of Green Gables was published more than a hundred years ago and continues to be among the world’s most beloved books. Maud Montgomery would go on to publish scores of novels, stories, and poems. But it all began with her big dream while living on a small island. How easy it is to say, “Well, it’s easy for her because she’s so talented.” The truth is that it’s not smooth traveling for any of us. But even small beginnings, after all of the roadblocks and the dead ends, can lead to great things when they ride on the wheels of a dream. 1 1. Catherine M. Andronik, Kindred Spirit: A Biography of L. M. Montgomery, Creator of Anne of Green Gables (1993), xii. 2 In Kindred Spirit, 49. Program #4123