Instructions: The title of this activity is an exclamation by the character Colin in the book The Secret Garden, by British author Frances Hodgson Burnett, when he has become convinced that he can get well from his long illness. The following excerpt begins the chapter that immediately follows Colin’s excited announcement:
“One of the strange things about living in the world is that it is only now and then one is quite sure one is going to live forever and ever and ever. One knows it sometimes when one gets up at the tender solemn dawn-time and goes out and stands alone and throws one’s head far back and looks up and up and watches the pale sky slowly changing and flushing, and marvelous unknown things happening, until the East almost makes one cry out and one’s heart stands still at the strange unchanging majesty of the rising of the sun—which has been happening every morning for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. One knows it then for a moment or so. And one knows it sometimes when one stands by oneself in a wood a sunset and the mysterious deep gold stillness slanting through and under the branches seems to be saying slowly again and again something one cannot quite hear, however much one tries. Then sometimes the immense quiet of the dark blue at night with millions of stars waiting and watching makes one sure; and sometimes a sound of far-off music makes it true; and sometimes a look in someone’s eyes.”
Has there ever been a time when you have been quite sure you were going to live forever and ever? What thoughts and feelings does reading this excerpt provoke in you? Write a paragraph or poem about your responses. Share your thoughts and words with one other person.
