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Make time to reflect, ‘catch the universe rhyming’ this season

Dear ones,

Few seasons have us as toss’d and torn in different directions as the holidays do. If you’re already tired (or just anticipating the fatigue), allow us to offer you, um, A Circle of Quiet (see what I did there?).

Today I’m so happy to share a reflection from Barbara Braver, Madeleine’s friend and former housemate. Barbara, along with Sarah Arthur, led a reflective retreat the day before the Walking on Water Conference last month. Her words fed souls, sure, but they also elicited a lot of nodding heads and busy pens-on-paper. Especially this one:

“There is no such thing as coincidence,” Barbara said, quoting English mystic Evelyn Underhill. “It is God’s universe caught in the act of rhyming.”

Following Barbara’s words, below, are the poems she referenced and read during the retreat. Be still for a few minutes and enjoy:

“William Temple, a theologian who served as Archbishop of Canterbury in the mid-1900’s, once reflected: ‘When I pray coincidences happen, and when I don’t, they don’t.’ Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, coined the word ‘synchronicity’ to describe what he observed as the ‘fact of meaningful coincidence …’

“Oh, and I have experienced this rhyming universe. As I am able to attune myself to them, fresh words and new rhyming schemes appear. My friend Mary calls to ask me how I am doing when, as a matter of fact, I’m not feeling terribly jolly and could most definitely use her encouraging word. I am thinking with gratitude of my dear father – now gone from any visible place and thus unavailable to me as it seems for some 40 years – and his favorite opera starts up on my car radio. Because I think it is a lucky thing to find coins dropped on the sidewalk, they pop up at just the right moment – and it’s not about being richer by five cents but about the unexpected ‘luck.’

Barbara Braver. Courtesy of Lorna Rande.

“Yes, I believe it is so. Our universe does rhyme. And why is this? My own sense is that I am receiving a message from the loving force at the center of the universe, a force that Jung said ‘cannot be understood as anything except a phenomenon of energy.’ I name this force as God, but the name doesn’t so much matter. It is the love that matters.

“I believe we are held and cared for. I believe life is an opportunity to ponder, and sometimes to laugh at the weirdness of things, the improbability, the tragedy, the circumstances we would never have imagined, the love unexpected and present, the weakness unanticipated, the strength that comes when we need it.

“Yes, I believe there is no such thing as coincidence. In God’s universe we are all caught up, held, in the force of a love that binds us all together. I am listening. I am attentive. I am eager to feel the love. I need, every day, to hear the rhyme.”

 

 

Poems referenced by Barbara Braver during the retreat (with text for harder-to-find poems):

  • Last night as I was sleeping – Antonio Machado
  • Layers – Stanley Kunitz
  • Love after Love – Derek Walcott
  • Luci Shaw wrote a poem inspired by a line from Marge Piercy: “The pitcher cries for water to carry …” It is in her book, Eye of the Beholder.
  • Two prayers/poems were included from Praying Our Days: A Guide and Companion by Frank T. Griswold.

 

Our true home is in the present moment – Thich Nhat Hahn – Life Prayers/367
Our true home is in the present moment.
To live in the present moment is a miracle.
The miracle is not to walk on water.
The miracle is to walk on the green Earth in the present moment,
to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.
Peace is all around us in the world and in nature, and within us;
It is in our bodies and our spirits.
Once we learn to touch this peace, we will be healed and transformed.
It is not a matter of faith, it is a matter of practice.

Percy (9) – Mary Oliver
Your friend is coming I say
To Percy, and name a name

And he runs to the door, his
Wide mouth in its laugh-shape,

And waves, since he has one, his tail.
Emerson, I am trying to live,

As you said we must, the examined life.
But there are days I wish

There was less in my head to examine,
Not to speak of the busy heart. How

Would it be to be Percy, I wonder, not
Thinking, not weighing anything, just running forward.

Growth – Priscilla Triebs
Like any seed, I must endure the split,
Live out the cruel dividing pain of it,
Release the outer form to inner heart
So growth can push resisting rims apart;
Allow the dull protective coat to shred
And lie in dry brown husks, completely dead.

New miracle…now watered by my grief;
Emerges sturdy stem and tender leaf.

A Morning Offering – Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, 1821-1867.
Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace.
Help me to rely upon your holy will.
In every hour of the day reveal your will to me.
Bless my dealings with all who surround me.
Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul
and with firm belief that your will governs all.
Guide my words and deeds, my thoughts and feelings.
Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without embittering or embarrassing others.
Give me strength to bear the fatigue of the coming day with all that it shall bring.
Direct my will, teach me to pray, pray yourself in me. Amen.

Patient Trust – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability –
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you.
Your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God can say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.

 

Peace, love, joy, and hope to you this season,

Erin Wasinger, for MadeleineLEngle.com.

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All Angels’ vibrant arts community makes the church a perfect spot for first Walking on Water Conference

Coming to the Walking on Water Conference next month? Let me introduce you to our generous host and co-sponsors: All Angels Church, the artistic faith community on the Upper West Side.

The church’s site is perfect for the conference for a few reasons. One, it’s where Madeleine worshiped during the last years of her life (more on that in a minute). Two, it’s a thriving, vibrant collection of creative types who value art as a means of understanding our Creator. All Angels Church’s artistic aims are infused with the flavor of Walking on Water, Madeleine’s treatise on faith and creativity.

Listen for some of Madeleine’s influence in All Angels’ artistic statement: “At All Angels’, our Arts ministry reminds us that we are co-agents with God in the world he’s made,” their site reads. “We believe the arts are a key way for us to witness God’s creative power on earth. In fact, it is through the arts that we experience the fullness of God, together.”

Her signature infusion of imagination into the spiritual life will for sure come up during the Walking on Water Conference, too. And, thanks to the hospitality of All Angels, the amalgamation of awesomeness taking place that weekend will “feed hungry sheep,” to borrow another illustration of Madeleine’s. (“I go to church … because I am a hungry sheep who needs to be fed,” she wrote in The Irrational Season.)

Let’s get to the details of all that awesomeness. Besides being our welcoming hosts for the Walking on Water Conference on Saturday, Nov. 16, All Angels has also slated its own events:

  • Songwriter Audrey Assad will perform a concert there on Friday, Nov. 15. The show is open to the public and tickets are $15 (you can buy concert tickets here.) (The next day, Assad will serve as the Walking on Water musician-in-residence — eep! read more about that here.)
  • Friday, Nov. 15, is also the opening reception for a special art exhibition that complements the Walking on Water Conference. Curated by Albert Pedulla and Joyce Yu-Jean Lee, the gallery will open at 6:30 pm and again after Audrey’s concert.
  • Saturday, Nov. 16, is the official Walking on Water Conference festivities (which you can register for here, and find a full recap of highlights here).
  • And finally, on Sunday, Nov. 17, author and Conference Co-Director Sarah Arthur will be preaching at the church’s 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. worship services.

That’s a lot of good stuff in one special space on the Upper West Side.  The space is, unfortunately, not wheelchair accessible. It has been a source of concern for the parish, and for us as we organize this gathering. There won’t be architectural changes in place to make the conference wheelchair accessible, but as we begin to imagine what future L’Engle events might look like, inclusion and accessibility are very much top of mind.

Going to church, for Madeleine, is akin to wearing a wedding ring: “a public witness of a private commitment.” For years she worshiped at St. John the Divine. Toward the end of her life, she found the cathedral overwhelming, as Sarah Arthur writes in A Light So Lovely: The Spiritual Legacy of Madeleine L’Engle. Madeleine was invited to All Angels by one of her goddaughters, Cornelia Duryée Moore, who coincidentally will be part of a panel discussion at the conference: “Icons of the True: Adapting Novels for Film.”

Isn’t it fun, how Madeleine’s part in the community of All Angels continues to bear fruit? Partake with us in November — we’ll all taste and see a glimmer of that magic!

Tesser well,

~Erin Wasinger, for MadeleineLEngle.com

 

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‘Walking on Water Conference’ recommended reading list pairs L’Engle titles, modern must-reads

Bibliophiles love a good “to read” list, and we will not disappoint you now.

As part of our prep for “Walking on Water: The Madeleine L’Engle Conference” this November, conference co-director Sarah Arthur has curated a list of books you’ll want to add to your stack, post haste. The list is categorized by genre – and we encourage you to take that as a challenge to read broadly. Let’s take a cue from Madeleine, shall we?, the woman who read poetry, fairy tales, and astrophysics.

We’ve included Sarah’s Recommended Reads list as an attachment, for those who (like me!) want to print the list for easy reference. Not that we’re keeping score, but I’ve read fifteen titles (and counting) so far. Most recently, I’ve devoured 2019 Newbery Honor Book The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani and The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser. In my job as a school librarian, I’ve made it my life’s ambition to get as many readers as possible to discover these books (and the rest on the list!). I hope the list inspires such enthusiastic sharing with your fellow readers, too.

What have you read from this list that you’d recommend? What are you excited to read next? Comment below.

By the way, we encourage you to find these books through Books of Wonder online, in their stores, or at the pop-up bookstore at the conference. Thanks for supporting indie sellers.

In other Walking on Water Conference news: We’ve extended the deadline for early-bird registration to Sept. 15!

The inaugural Madeleine L’Engle Conference will feature hands-on workshops, panel discussions, lunch groups, live music, plenary sessions, and more. All are welcome to join this lively and generative conversation centered around L’Engle’s signature treatise on faith & art, Walking on Water.

Conference highlights include acclaimed children’s author Katherine Paterson (Bridge to Terabithia, The Great Gilly Hopkins), Newbery-Honor-winner Veera Hiranandani (The Night Diary), National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi (American Street, My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich), A Wrinkle in Time film producer Catherine Hand, music by award-winning singer-songwriter Audrey Assad, and much more. The conference, in partnership with Writing For Your Life, is honored to work with collaborators We Need Diverse Books, Books of Wonder bookstore, Stage Partners, and Macmillan, as well as host venue and co-sponsor All Angels’ Church, to welcome artists, writers, readers, & students to the Upper West Side neighborhood that Madeleine called home.

Register and find more information here, including details about a Friday retreat and a special young adult discount price.

Can’t wait to see you there!

~Erin F. Wasinger for MadeleineLEngle.com.

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‘A Wrinkle in Time’ appreciation comes full circle for author Karuna Riazi

Author Karuna Riazi has been a fan of Madeleine L’Engle since she was an 8-year-old reading A Wrinkle in Time. That love for Wrinkle and its protagonist, Meg Murry, brings Karuna to the first Walking on Water Conference this fall (yay!). She’s part of the stellar panel of We Need Diverse Books authors who’ll be talking about a new generation of Meg Murrys: What Fantasy & Speculative Fiction Inspire. We’re so geeked to feature her today on the blog!

Welcome, Karuna Riazi.

What excites you about the Madeleine L’Engle Conference?
I love how being invited — and honored as a guest! — at this conference makes me feel like my writing and reading life has come full circle. I first read A Wrinkle in Time when I was eight, as my next door neighbor and long time family friend saw me browsing her bookshelves for something new. That prompted her husband — a middle school science teacher — to offer me his own copy (with the caveat that it needed to be returned, which it was … quite reluctantly) with the assurance that “I would enjoy it.”

I did, and revisited it many times after that, along with Ms. L’Engle’s other wonderful titles. Now — probably to the disbelief of my eight year old self — I get to discuss it and how I am carrying on her legacy (shivers) at the conference!

Do you have a Madeleine story/quote/moment that has inspired you?
“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” This quote has carried me through a lot of moments in which my love of writing for children has been demeaned, dismissed or otherwise brushed aside as “not serious craft.”

In what ways does a legacy like Madeleine’s inspire the way you create art for a new generation?
When I look at Madeleine, who was a woman of faith and a woman author, I feel so deeply that I can be who she was and pass on the gift that she gave me. I can represent those communities, along with the other marginalized communities I inhabit, and stir people to wonder and to love and to unity with my words, and encourage kids to look within themselves and see the spark of magic and bravery and strength that only they have.

What are you working on now?
I am working on a great many things, as always: some YA-shaped things and some middle-grade sparks of possibility. But, if readers are searching for something more from me besides The Gauntlet, its companion The Battle, releases on August 27 from Simon and Schuster/Salaam Reads!

Thanks, Karuna — and congrats on the new release!

Before I wrap up today’s party, I’ve got two friendly reminders:

  1. Registration prices for the Walking on Water Conference increase after September 15 (yes, we extended it. If you are like us, our thoughts won’t fully turn to Fall until after Labor Day)! Get yourself signed up here.
  2. Catch up with the other We Need Diverse Books authors who’ll be part of the Walking on Water Conference: Sayantani DasGupta, Heidi Heilig, and moderator Caroline Richmond.

-Erin F. Wasinger, for MadeleineLEngle.com.

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