Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage

Anais Nin (whom I've never read, so many gaps in my education, it's not like the 7th century anymore where you could study your arse off from age 8 until you were 21 and really KNOW EVERYTHING there was to know) supposedly said that. I read the quote on an etching of Anna Jane McIntyre's.

I met AJM in first year university. She had a good noodle on her and a quick wit, but never studied. She just drew constantly and played the bongos and danced everywhere and took no guff and played early electronica for me. Then she disappeared, and as it turns out, went to a good art school. I bumped into her on Dundas Street in Toronto a few years ago. It was snowing and she was walking a small dog that wasn't hers. We've been in touch on and off since. Pretty much everything she's produced is something I'd want on my walls.

My friend Louise is going away very soon for a month to hike a pilgrimage trail in France and Spain on her own. She is a gorgeous fabulous brilliant woman, and I don't know if she's read Nin, but she's certainly living as though by that one line.