The Song in the Garden

This is an early story written by Anais Nin in 1929 or 1930, which was published in 1977. It's about a girl who discovers there are two types of people in the world: those who hear the song in the garden and are not changed, and those who hear the song in the garden and are changed. The girl in the story is the latter.

She discovered early on there was something unusual about herself. She wanted to understand the adult world and be where things were happening. She was very sensitive and tried to find others who were like herself. She sat on the balcony and thought about this. She went to the beach and discovered more.

She observed some people make so much noise on the outside, they can't hear what's going on inside themselves. The girl began writing and decided that's what mattered most because she could read what she wrote again and again and relive those memories. Even when she was away from the beach and back on the balcony, she could relive her days at the beach by reading what she had written.

She discovered her father's library and books that were better than what she had written. She read about a bigger world, far away places, people who were different from those she knew. There were thousands of cities and beaches, and everything was colorful and interesting to her. She was never bored because she could spend all her time reading about these things.

Her father warned her not to read a certain book, so of course, she read it. It was about a woman who went to a dinner party, was drugged, became pregnant, and did not know who was the father of her child.

The girl learned new words and learned of new worlds. Her father had 6,000 books, read them, studied them, then put them away without changing his expression or his life. She couldn't understand how her parents could continue to fill their house with uninteresting people and spend their time in only one city and one beach when there was so much more to life, as revealed in the books. She realized she would have to see the world and do real living herself. The books were the key to the world.

She went to museums and ruins she learned about in the books. She learned the books weren't the key; the key to the universe was inside of herself because everyone is affected in a different way by the things they see; meaning is unique.

The girl knew now that she had to live with fervor and with intelligence; she also had to not only live for an idea, or die for it, but also fight for it. Passion was born in her. She was not one of those people who preferred chocolate, detective stories, a secure life. Instead, she was one of those people who tries new things, takes risks, expands her world, grows as a person.