spoken to

when there is no one close, Madeleine becomes my author of choice.
she writes out my jumbled thoughts.
the delusion of being known is welcome tonight
this is a reread... following words had been previously underlined.
must have found them pertinent.
now again there is truth found.


The burning bush. The bush burned, was alive with flame and was not consumed. It is. It is a pure example of ontology. Ontology: the word about the essence of things; the word about being.

I suppose the perfect isness of anything would be frightening without the hope of God.
An oak tree is, and it doesn't matter to it - at least Sartre thinks it doesn't; it is not a thinking oak. Man is; it matters to him; this is terrifying unless it matters to God, too, because this is the only possible reason we can matter to ourselves; not because we are sufficient unto ourselves - I am not; my husband, my family, my friends give me my meaning and, in a sense, my being, so that I know that I, like the burning bush, or the oak tree, am ontological: essential: real.

Madeleine L'Engle . A Circle of Quiet