• About
  • Submissions
  • Store
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter

Story Warren

Kindling Imagination for Kingdom Anticipation

  • Fostering Imagination
    • Valuing Imagination
    • Parenting
    • Faith & Vision
  • Resources
    • Books
    • Music
    • Movies
    • Interviews
    • Lists
  • Warren & the World
  • For Kids
    • Poems
    • Stories
    • Songs

Making the World More Beautiful (with Miss Rumphius)

October 10, 2018 by Laura Peterson 15 Comments

Are you acquainted with the Lupine Lady? She lives in a small house overlooking the sea, and goes by the more proper name of Miss Alice Rumphius. I’ve known her since I was a child, and I love introducing her to new friends. The Lupine Lady is the central character in the picture book Miss Rumphius, by Barbara Cooney, and it’s one of my favorite stories. As a little girl helping in her grandfather’s shop, Alice hears his stories of faraway places and adventures. Young Alice vows to also visit faraway places and have adventures, and then to come home and live by the sea. “That is all very well, little Alice,” says the grandfather,” but there is a third thing you must do. You must do something to make the world more beautiful.”

How great is that?! Does he tell her she must continue the family business? Do great things and become rich and famous? Nope. “Do something to make the world more beautiful.”

Alice accepts this charge, and then she goes about her life. She grows up, works in a library, travels to faraway places, meets interesting people, and eventually she does come home to live by the sea. She has seen and experienced so much; but, what can she do to make the world more beautiful?

“The world is already pretty nice,” she thinks.

One spring after an illness, she notices that the wind has blown some lupine seeds from her garden and taken them over the hill, and there’s a beautiful new flower patch where before there was nothing. Struck with inspiration and touched by the beauty of the flowers, she wanders the hills and valleys of the town, sowing lupine seeds everywhere she goes. A year later, the little village by the sea is transformed by the blue and purple and rose-colored lupine blooms. Alice has done it; she’s done something to make the world more beautiful.

This story rings a bell in my heart because it’s so simple, and so welcoming. The messages that I hear directed towards kids today are often much more complicated and demanding; get good grades, AND be involved in as many activities as possible, AND go to a good college, AND land a good career, AND become wealthy, etc. There’s none of that in Miss Rumphius.

Be you butcher, baker, or candlestick-maker, it proclaims, just do something to make the world more beautiful. It can be as simple as planting a garden.

I’m also oddly encouraged by Alice’s uncertainty in the book. Her first response to her grandpa’s charge is to wonder what she could possibly do to fulfill it… but does she let that trouble her? No. She’s not suffering the type of vocational crisis that I think our well-meaning Christian culture can emphasize, worrying over what her “calling” is.  She goes through her life, and when she sees an opportunity to bring beauty to a place that was short on it, she takes it. That’s all. She’s done something to make the world more beautiful. I need to hear that, to remind myself (and the other “do-better, try-harder” types out there) that life doesn’t begin when we find what we’re “supposed” to do. There are adventures to be had, places to go, people to meet, and it’s in the midst of all that (or even after we think most of our adventures are finished) that we can still find chances to bring beauty to those around us.

All that, and gorgeous illustrations to boot. Miss Rumphius is for all of us who want to do something to make the world more beautiful…even if we don’t know yet what that can be.

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Laura Peterson
Laura Peterson
Laura Peterson believes that every house in the world should have either a window seat or a porch swing.
Laura Peterson
Latest posts by Laura Peterson (see all)
  • Picture Books in 2020, The Year of Outdoors - December 30, 2020
  • James D. Witmer’s The Strange New Dog - December 21, 2020
  • Jennifer Trafton’s Henry and the Chalk Dragon - October 21, 2020

Filed Under: Books, Discovering Resources

Get Story Warren in Your Inbox

Comments

  1. KristenP says

    January 15, 2014 at 10:27 am

    What a lovely idea, to make the world more beautiful.

    This reminds me of Sam’s post on the Rabbit Room yesterday: “It is a beautiful world,” the girl said. “It is a great honour to make things for it.” -WK Clifford.
    http://www.rabbitroom.com/2014/01/the-light-on-the-hills/

    Reply
    • S.D. Smith says

      January 18, 2014 at 3:13 pm

      Yeah, man. Synergy and stuff.

      Reply
  2. kellkell says

    January 15, 2014 at 11:16 am

    We love Miss Rumphius!

    Reply
  3. Alyssa Ramsey says

    January 15, 2014 at 11:29 am

    As one of those “do-better, try-harder” types, I really needed to be reminded of this. Lovely. Thanks, Laura.

    Reply
  4. Nicole Brace says

    January 15, 2014 at 11:50 am

    Laura! You’ve winnowed out the truly soul-nourishing elements of this story and served ’em up hot and fresh for us! Wow, thanks! I gotta go munch on them for a while. Dear Story Warren, “More, please!”

    Reply
  5. Amber Lucas-Donovan says

    January 15, 2014 at 1:10 pm

    Add to the beauty. What a wonderful charge! You certainly reminded me of that today. Excellent work!

    Reply
  6. Ming-Wai Ng says

    January 15, 2014 at 4:15 pm

    Laura, this was positively lovely.

    Reply
  7. Helena Sorensen says

    January 15, 2014 at 9:00 pm

    Now I have to add this to my list! It sounds delightful! Thanks, Laura.

    Reply
  8. Allison Redd says

    January 18, 2014 at 9:16 am

    Oh this is one of my most favorite books — we only discovered Miss Rumphius this past year, but it was just when I most needed to hear it. As I was grieving my mother’s passing, I realized she did many things to make the world more beautiful, most of all her love for others, including me. I also have been treasuring the paintings I’ve found that she never wanted to hang up and I am giving them a place of honor in my home!

    Reply
  9. S.D. Smith says

    January 18, 2014 at 3:13 pm

    Well said, Laura!

    Reply
  10. Loren Warnemuende says

    January 18, 2014 at 4:28 pm

    I’ll definitely have to find a copy of this. Would it work for a read-aloud to first-graders? I’ll be reading to my daughter’s class in a couple weeks and this sounds lovely.

    Reply
    • Loren Warnemuende says

      January 18, 2014 at 4:30 pm

      Just checked and our local library has it. Request sent to reserve it!

      Reply
    • Laura_Peterson says

      January 20, 2014 at 5:00 pm

      Totally, Loren. Great choice. The artwork is just great, too.

      Reply
      • Loren Warnemuende says

        January 23, 2014 at 9:07 am

        Picked it up and test-read it to my four-year-old who loved it. It’ll be great for Ev’s class. Thanks!

        Reply
  11. Carolyn Leiloglou says

    October 12, 2018 at 5:52 pm

    I love how a great picture book has something to say to the adult reader as well as the child!

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Allison Redd Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get Story Warren in Your Inbox

Featured Product

Join us on Facebook

Story Warren

Featured Product

Featured Product

  • Latest Posts
  • Store

Copyright © 2012 - 2021 Story Warren, LLC · Site by Design by Insight

Copyright © 2021 · Story Warren on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in