Kindred Spirits

I had lunch with a friend from London today:  it was the perfect antidote to the grey, gloomy weather that's pervaded New York of late, a lunch full of laughter and good conversation.  We were teasing one another about our respective OCD-like tendencies, when he brought up the subject of 'kindred spirits.'  It's been years since I've thought of the phrase, but it's been etched in my memory ever since reading Anne of Green Gables as a young child.  

It's impossible to describe what makes someone a kindred spirit.  The dictionary describes it as "a person who shares beliefs, attitudes, feelings, or features with another," but it's more than that.  Perhaps it's easiest to just say that you know one when you see one.  Still, on the eve of my third decade, I consider myself lucky to have so many kindred spirits in my life:

"Miss Barry was a kindred spirit, after all," Anne confided to Marilla. "You wouldn't think so to look at her, but she is. You don't find it right out at first, as in Matthew's case, but after a while you come to see it. Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world."

Well, there's some comfort in that

Whenever I think about all of the ways that I manage to constantly make mistakes, I'm reminded of this passage from Anne of Green Gables. The snippet is a dialogue between eleven-year-old Anne, an orphan with a penchant for getting into trouble, and Marilla, the woman who adopts her:

"Marilla, isn't it nice to think that to-morrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?"

"I'll warrant you'll make plenty in it," said Marilla. "I never saw your beat for making mistakes, Anne."

"Yes and well I know it," admitted Anne mournfully. "But have you noticed one encouraging thing about me, Marilla? I never make the same mistake twice."

"I don't know as that's much benefit when you're always making new ones."

"Oh, don't you see, Marilla? There must be a limit to the mistakes one person can make, and when I get to the end of them, then I'll be through with them. That's a very comforting thought."