How sensawunda makes us feel

In memory of Madeleine L’Engle, who died on Sept. 6, here is a “sensawunda” quote from her marvelous book of essays, Walking on Water.

We don’t want to feel less when we have finished a book; we want to feel that new possibilities of being have been opened to us. We don’t want to close a book with the sense that life is totally unfair and that there is no light in the darkness; we want to feel that we have been given illumination.