Behind the violence of the birthing of galaxies and stars and planets came a quiet and tender melody, a gentle love song. All the raging of creation, the continuing hydrogen explosions on the countless suns, the heaving of planetary bodies, all was enfolded in a patient, waiting love.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the idea that even amidst the chaos and violence of creation, there exists an underlying force of love and tenderness.
Madeleine L'Engle's quote reflects on the duality of creation, where the intense and sometimes violent processes of birthing galaxies and stars are softened by an underlying melody of love. It suggests that despite the overwhelming forces at play in the universe, there is a nurturing and patient love that enfolds everything, indicating a deeper connection between chaos and harmony in the cosmos.
In practice
During a lecture on the nature of the universe, this quote can be used to illustrate the balance between chaos and beauty.
Truth is what is true, and it's not necessarily factual. Truth and fact are not the same thing. Truth does not contradict or deny facts, but it goes through and beyond facts. This is something that it is very difficult for some people to understand. Truth can be dangerous.
George MacDonald gives me renewed strength during times of trouble--times when I have seen people tempted to deny God--when he says, "The Son of God suffered unto death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like his.
If you don't recount your family history, it will be lost. Honor your own stories and tell them too. The tales may not seem very important, but they are what binds families and makes each of us who we are.
I never want to lose the story-loving child within me, or the adolescent, or the young woman, or the middle-aged one, because all together they help me to be fully alive on this journey, and show me that I must be willing to go where it takes me, even through the valley of the shadow.
The minute we begin to think we have all the answers, we forget the questions.
When we believe in the impossible, it becomes possible, and we can do all kinds of extraordinary things.
Many people believe that our lives end not when we die but when the very last person who knew us dies. Memory is part of it, yes, but I think it's much more than memory.
It [a new world order] needs only that the governments of Britain, the United States, France, Germany, and Russia should get together in order to set up an effective control of currency, credit, production, and distribution – that is to say, an effective ‘dictatorship of prosperity,’ for the whole world. The other sixty odd States would have to join in or accommodate themselves to the over-ruling decisions of these major Powers.
And a rock feels no pain; And an island never cries.
A man can smile and smile and be a villain.
War is the form nostalgia takes when men are hard-pressed to say something good about their country.
You are not wood, you are not stones, but men.
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