Anais Nin

Poet, writer, diarist, author, teacher, theorist of creativity, and in my opinion, I would simply call her an “understander” of “the real things”. Anais Nin is one to inspire young writers searching for something real, gutsy, bold, brilliant, fearless, and maybe a tad of “girl power” :)! I first came across this lambent woman’s work through recording artist Alicia Keys’ record, “Element Of Freedom”. The introduction of the album starts with a spoken word segment stating, “and the day came when the risk it took to remain tightly closed in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to bloom, this is The Element Of Freedom.” I had carried this close to my heart. I thought of this regularly. It truly made a huge impact. I pondered regularly with these words in mind, not yet knowing the original words came from Anais herself. It wasn’t until I shared these words through my Facebook page that a woman brought to my attention that these were the words of Anais Nin, an author of avant-garde French style novels. The original quote being “and the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” This new found information was very exciting for me, mostly because I had walked with these words for so long and now I felt I had been let in her closet full of endless pieces of literature to take in and enjoy! Her words are strong, aged, wise, fearless, soulful, and with a certain push to the lyric that she did with such ease. I say AMEN to Anais. I do believe women are mighty and you were a solider of all sorts, inspiring, fierce to the core, and a true legend.

Enjoy Anais Nin. We are blessed to endure a great mind, heart, and soul as hers~

“If you do not breathe through writing,
if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing,
then don’t write, because our culture has no use for it.”
Anais Nin