The Best Thing I Can Do for You

Lake George 1929 -nd After two months in Taos, Georgia O'Keeffe explains her time away in a letter to Alfred Stieglitz dated July 9, 1929:

There is much life in me — when it was always checked in moving toward you — I realized it would die if it could not move toward something ... I chose coming away because here at least I feel good — and it makes me feel I am growing very tall and straight inside — and very still — Maybe you will not love me for it — but for me it seems to be the best thing I can do for you — I hope this letter carries no hurt to you — It is the last thing I want to do in the world.

Today it rains —

From My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz edited by Sarah Greenough

See also: 

• "Stieglitz And O'Keeffe: Their Love And Life In Letters," by Susan Stamberg, NPR's Morning Edition, July 21, 2011 
• Read an excerpt