A lot of the shadow self is the home of poetry, story, prayer. My deepest understandings are often released from the part of me of which I am least aware most of the time.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that our unconscious thoughts nurture creativity and profound understanding.
Madeleine L'Engle's quote highlights the idea that our 'shadow self,' or the parts of ourselves that we are not fully conscious of, play a crucial role in our creative expressions such as poetry and storytelling. It implies that by diving into these lesser-known aspects of our identity, we can achieve deeper insights and revelations that inform our art and spirituality.
In practice
During a poetry slam, one could use this quote to illustrate the importance of personal experience in creativity.
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.
Give me artificial flowers - porcelain and metal glories - neither fading nor decaying, forms unaging. Flowers of the splendid gardens of another place, where Forms and Styles and Knowledge dwell. I love flowers made of glass or gold, true Art's true gifts, their painted hues more beautiful than nature's, worked in nacre and enamel, with perfect leaves and branches.
Oh, I'm impressed with Lorraine Hansberry. She was a genius at whose feet I could sit.
I'm a method actress in my songs, which is why it's hard to sing them.
I like smart movies about smart people, and enjoy it when most of the facts are on the table and we can contemplate them together.
It's funny with fiction - once you cut something, it hasn't happened anymore.
I thought, 'There are a lot of poets who have the courage to look into the abyss, but there are very few who have the courage to look happiness in the face and write about it,' which is what I wanted to be able to do.
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