Henry & June

I cannot help feeling today that some part of me stands aside watching me live and marveling. Thrown into life without experience, naive, I feel that something has saved me. I feel equal to life. It is like the scenes of an exceptional play. Henry guided me. No. He waited. He watched me. I moved, I acted. I did unexpected things, surprising to myself-that moment, Henry mentions, when I sat at the edge of the bed. I had been standing before the mirror combing my hair. He lay in bed and said, "I do not feel at ease with you yet." Impulsively, swiftly, I went to the bed, sat near him, put my face very near his. My coat slipped off, and the straps of my chemise, too, and in the whole gesture, in what I said, there was something so naturally giving, pliant, human that he couldn't talk.

1931-1932

~ Anais Nin