Episode Four: “The Risk of Birth” by Madeleine L'Engle with Genevieve Saenz
3/14/2024 | 22m
This week, Amy and Kate take on "The Risk of Birth", a poem by Madeleine L'Engle, with guest Genevieve Saenz. This includes physical human birth, metaphysical creative birth, the birth of this podcast, and dinosaurs. Don’t worry, Dear Listeners - nature finds a way. So do poems.
This Episode's Guest
Genevieve Saenz, MA, LMFT is based in Austin, TX as an expressive arts therapist and celebrant. Her practice, Passageway Arts, was started in 2012 and focuses on life transitions, relationship repair, bereavement, and creative expression. She is also a mom, gardener, and life long poet.
Amy's Show Notes
What Amy’s reading - The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West: https://www.lindywest.net/the-witches-are-coming
What Kate is reading - Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear: https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits
Passageway Arts: https://www.passagewayarts.com/
Genevieve’s selection - “The Risk of Birth” by Madeleine L'Engle: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/33805f_10d15067c35e40fdb0cf577b5553272d~mv2.png
The 2014-2016 Ebola Outbreak in West Africa - the largest in history and devastating - is considered an epidemic, not a pandemic: https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/history/2014-2016-outbreak/index.html
Genevieve holding a felt Advent candle days before giving birth: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/33805f_03cb8f1ed83845f8b5f63a53686c2c63~mv2.png
The baby Genevieve gave birth to: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/33805f_3ee2e90221a3435dae48f706461475d7~mv2.png
Okay, I haven’t been able to find anything specifically on Madeleine L’Engel believing that dinosaurs but this quote from "A Conversation With Madeleine L'Engle" by Heather Webb from a 1996 edition of the Mars Hill Review discusses her stance on evolution and faith:
"Somebody once asked me in a college setting what I thought about creationism versus evolution. I said, "I can't get very excited about it. There's only one question that's worth asking, and that is, did God make it? If the answer is yes, then why get so excited about how?
As far as I can see, evolution seems to be more logical at this point. I really don't think God put fish and skeletons of fish in the mountains of Nepal to test our faith (which is what's being taught in some places). But if I should find out tomorrow that it was neither creationism nor evolution, that wouldn't affect my faith because it's a peripheral issue. The main issue is, did God create it? That's all that matters. We keep arguing over peripheral things, and that's how we divide into different denominations."
A great read on “Madeleine L’Engle’s Private Correspondence With Ahmad Rahman” by Abigail Santamaria in Vanity Fair: https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/01/madeleine-lengles-private-correspondence-with-ahmad-rahman
Passageway Arts once again, because we know how to do the Internet here at Finding Good Bones: https://www.passagewayarts.com/
Request a recommendation on a selection of writing picked by Kate and Amy just for you: https://www.findinggoodbones.com/contact