Madeleine L’Engle

 I was busy last week and somehow missed the news– Madeleine L’Engle died. A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door , the Austin series are books I loved. My daughter adored them.

I remember finding her as a 6th grader sprawled on her bedroom floor constructing a chart. She was putting all of L’Engle’s books she loved so well in chronological order so as not to miss a single one. And my daughter isn’t the only one. I’ve talked to a number of students who remember years of their lives defined by these wonderful, quirky, magical books.

One of the most wondeful things about L’Engles books are that they are difficult to categorize. They have that special touch of magic that reminds you that the world is much more than it seems, much bigger than any of us imagine. One of my favorites is,  Walking on Water ,her biographical reflections on art and faith.

“To paint a picture or to write a story or to compose a song is an incarnational activity. The artist is a servant who is willing to be a birth giver.”  A fitting tribute might be to read one of her many novels or to write something yourself and carry on the work of incarnation.