By Marianne Wood

Maitland: What will you do now?

Miss Madrigal: Continue to explore the astonishment of living.

Sometimes, a bit of a line in a movie–especially one for which you had low expectations–grabs you surprisingly. It inspires you to be a better person or moves you because it connects with a sore place in your heart. I’ll bet that’s happened to you many times. It happened to me while watching a Hayley Mills movie which I was not sure I wanted to see. 

The Chalk Garden pairs one of my most-revered childhood actresses with her father, John Mills. Hayley plays a disturbed young teen named Laurel who lives with her grandmother. Her father plays Maitland, the butler. As in Tiger Bay, Hayley’s first film, the duo pulls off another superb collaboration while Dame Edith Evans secures an Oscar nomination for her role as Laurel’s grandmother.

When Hayley’s biography appeared in last year’s Library Book Sale, I reached for it greedily. I’d always wanted to know more about the cute and talented star of the first Parent Trap. After finishing it, I found a list of her movies and began checking them off as we saw them. The blurb I’d read about The Chalk Garden did not make watching it a priority, but my husband recorded it when the film showed up in Turner Classic Movies. Viewing it recently, we were rewarded with a beautifully filmed story played by some of the greatest actors of the time. 

John and Hayley made seven films together, including The Parent Trap and The Truth about Spring, another favorite. In The Chalk Garden, Deborah Kerr plays a mysterious character: an artist with an intriguing past named Miss Madrigal. During a short dialog with Maitland at the movie’s end, Maitland asks her what she will do next. She replies, “Continue to explore the astonishment of living.” 

To get the full impact of that statement, it’s helpful to see the film. But to those of you familiar with the work of Henri Nouwen, this may sound familiar. In Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety, he suggests that we take whatever pain we have, our cross-carrying, and connect it to Jesus, letting the wonder of Him change us. Nouwen concluded this after a trip to the Grand Canyon while suffering a bout of depression. His astonishment seeing this significant landmark helped restore him. I continue to be astonished and restored by many things, too. Interactions with people, mostly. The wonder of God in them fascinates me.

Miss Madrigal not only caused but suffered great pain and possibly depression, but she chose to move on with a joyful expectation. So, the challenge beckons. And I accept. I hope you’ll watch this excellent film and relish Nowen’s endearing encouragement.

Marianne Wood works as an editorial assistant and researcher for Bill Wright