Goodbye to Madeleine

Yesterday my husband was reading the paper when he came across an obituary for Madeleine L'Engle. I sobbed when he brought the paper to me. Madeleine L'Engle is the author I love dearest and most want to be like. Though I was not surprised to hear the news of her death, I was heartbroken. I had dreamed that one day I might meet her and thank her. Now I mourn the loss of a friend I have never met. I weep over the cold, hard certainty that she will create no more books. And I cry for the loss of my own writing life which has essentially been killed by the other demands of life.

Ms. L'Engle's books have been my constant companions since childhod. They have gotten me through many lonely and difficult times. They have shaped who I am as a person and what I value. She is best known for her Newberry Award winning book, "A Wrinkle in Time," but my favorite has always been, "A Wind in the Door."

I have read dozens of her books more than ten times each. They speak to the child and the adult in me. They remind me of my ache for Jesus and the miraculous and real love. And they remind me to be merciful, patient, forgiving, and to believe in myself and other people. Thank God for Madeliene and her books. My life would have been very different without them. But I am grateful that she is now with the God that all her writing points to. And I thank God for the friends she gave me in her books. Friends like Meg & Charles Wallace Murry, Vicki Austin, and Poly O'Keefe.

We had a reading from Madeleine L'Engle's work at our wedding. One of her poems from a book called, "The Irrational Season." Here's a bit of it:

Rejoice!

You have just given me the univese,

put it in my hands, held it to my lips,

oh, here on my knees I have been fed

the entire sum of all created matter,

the everything that came from nothing.

Rejoice!

Who can doubt its power?

Did not this crumb of bread

this sip of wine

burst into life

that thundered across nothing

and became the cause of all our celebrations?

...old people remembering

babies laughing

mothers singing

fathers celebrating

rejoice

around the table

hold hands

all around

like a ring circling a finger

placed there as a promise

holding the universe together

nothing into something

into joy and love

rejoice.

Goodbye Sweet Madeleine. I'm sure the angels are enjoying your company.