Softer

“I sometimes wonder how many can take you, the full depth and breadth of you, like I can. I sometimes wonder how many, if anyone, can take me, the full depth and breadth of me, my undeniable, demanding presence, like you can. I wonder if I can take anyone…” (En savoir plus)

Rest

“I am feeling extraordinarily calm and content with my surroundings while in a distance with a place, ou bien with someone, I’m clearly in love with. No – no distance. Only space. Hence the calm and contentment. Reassurance is probably the word I was looking for, and this time it comes from within…” (En savoir plus)

To Vienna

“I think London is waiting for me, with its theatres and River Thames, with love in its air again because I’ll be around again with the usual Parisian sass and finesse. Maybe I’ll give Vienna a visit too, simply because someone beautiful mentioned it on a beautiful morning…” (En savoir plus)

Embrace

“Almost greedily, Paris, I am consuming everything that is beautiful and temporary this morning has to offer for me – everything that is music, everything that is light, everything that is warm, everything that is carnal, and in the process, I feel your embrace embodied. Who knew love isn’t in anything eternal?” (En savoir plus)

It feels quiet

“Can one be on the wrong path when wishing only good things? Can one be on the wrong path wishing no harms on others? Is it enough – wishing and wanting? And which ‘others’ – is there only one? I feel that my questions about the world are no longer fake…” (En savoir plus)

My liberated love

“Now, after waves of pain, guilt, and even anger, which surprised my heart a little, I know my rational conviction, my principles are what soothe my pain, because they give meaning to it and meaning is as important as life itself, if not more…” (En savoir plus)

Je suis prête

“I have now learned that it is always there, Paris – the calm, the peace, the joy. It’s only a matter of cultivating and maintaining it at every moment, even when it’s supposed to be a challenging moment. And that, my dear, is the secret of life – only joking…” (En savoir plus)

Staying close

“…I see that you are my block universe, Paris, where everything happens beyond time; where all phases in my life melt together and are aware of each other. I love you beyond space that you don’t cease to exist when I’m not physically there….” (En savoir plus)

A home at last!

“I now feel so embraced while embracing all my Parisian phases—the ‘young and abandoned’ Dina, the ‘unhappily-married’ Dina, the ‘reborn and rebellious’ Dina, the ‘single and not on the dating apps’ Dina, the ‘insatiable Londoner girlfriend’ Dina, and the current phase I haven’t got a label for yet…” (En savoir plus)

What a light!

“All the same, I feel such tenderness toward everything and everyone these days—yes, even you—especially you! I feel that I understand them and I want them to feel seen so that in turn they can see themselves, all that good and all the goods….” (En savoir plus)

Unfolding

“I started writing for Imagined Paris again after years that same month and I understand now how something seemingly so little and so insignificant could be the thing that ties everything up together. I mean, how many of you are listening to this right now? Just you? Wonderful – you are so significant!” (En savoir plus)

Reprise

“Today, I understand why it didn’t take long to feel this way again—free, in love, clear. If anything, it should have been instantaneous, once I reached her within. It’s reaching her that I, perhaps, was out of practice at. Only slightly, fortunately…” (En savoir plus)