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.
I try all night to play a pretty note.
What do you think an artist is? ...he is a political being, constantly aware of the heart breaking, passionate, or delightful things that happen in the world, shaping himself completely in their image. Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war.
I read a great deal of science fiction with consummate pleasure between, say, the ages of 12 and 16. Then I got away from it. In my mid- to late 20s, I started trying to write it.
I had grown up as an Irish poet in a country where the distance between vision and imagination was not quite as wide as in some other countries.
Many really good films allow us to empathize with other lives.
That kill the bloom before its time, And blanch, without the owner's crime, The most resplendent hair.
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