The Crosswicks Journals

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The Crosswicks Journal
Author: Madeleine L’Engle

Book 1: A Circle of Quiet. Published 1972
Book 2: The Summer of the Great-Grandmother. Published 1974
Book 3: The Irrational Season. Published 1977
Book 4: Two - Part Invention. Published 1988
I read all four of these journals between July 7, 2019 and August 6, 2019.

Somewhere, along the way, I heard of this collection of journals. I began reading Book 1 - The Circle of Quiet multiple times over the course of several years, never able to really get into it… even though, it is very meaningful. But in the summer of 2019, feeling like I was on the cusp of something that I couldn’t quite articulate, I began again. I ended up reading all four in a very short span of time. The timing was right; I was ready for it… kinda the way Madeleine L’Engle referred to her book, A Wrinkle in Time… after years of trying to get it published, the world was ready for it. I was ready for the Crosswicks Journal... all four books. I believe books meet us where we are… like friends on the journey.

Book 1 definitely met me where I was. It had compassion on me and gave me strength and encouragement for what was next, what was not known at the time, and who I must be. As I read Book 2, I thought a great deal about a long time friend enduring her emotional pain of the summer of 2019… the push the pull, and the never-being-in-the-right-place-feeling that she was experiencing at the time. There were many morsels to chew on in this book, but much of what stood out to me was seeing how she wrote about the people she loved and the times and happenings in which they lived. It’s also a book exploring the Greek word “ousia” ~ the “essence of being”.

Book 3 was like a wrestling match. I actually feel the seasons of wrestling in my life sometimes, and it was really good to read an honest journal of that very real part of life. At that time, I wrote down in my book journal, as a quote that I won’t publish here online, a paragraph from page 182 about wrestling with the need for solitude and feeling selfish because of the need to write…. I thought, wow, there it is… I’m still wrestling with that feeling from two years ago… and I forgot that I had that feeling back then. So, in Book 3, Madeleine is still wrestling ~ as I’ve come to believe all honest people must do ~ much if not all of their lives. The minute we stop wrestling… we stop living. In this book she wrestles with living life in the midst of life and the church calendar and many “big” church ideas.

Book 4, the final part of The Crosswicks Journal, is primarily a story of her relationship with her husband, Hugh, and his departure from this life. Because I had read the other three parts to this journal, I think this last book made sense and was a solid part of the journal. However, I’m not sure this particular book would make for a good stand alone, as I think the other three have that strength. But then again, what do I know? Perhaps someone in this particular place in life would say something quite the opposite… and Book 4 would meet them right where they are…

I was thoroughly encouraged as a human wrestler in the reading of these books!

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