Living well

Hey Everyone,

I hope you’re all having a good week.

My newsletter is a day late this week because yesterday I was at the funeral for my great-aunt and, even though I could schedule the email ahead, it didn’t feel right for it to go out while I was attending the service.

I want to take a minute to reflect on my great-aunt and some of the lessons I’d like to take from the way she lived her life. She was 91 and, while much of our family lived within ten or so minutes of her, she still lived on her own. She was quirky — her name was Geraldine but she preferred to be called Jerry, specifically with a J.

This is from a recent family brunch. She’s the one the left in the blue and green shirt.

She was more like a grandmother to me. My grandma got divorced when my dad and his four siblings were young, and Jerry moved in with them and stayed until all the kids were grown and out of the house, so she was like a second mother to all of them.

And when it comes to lessons, I want to strive to hold her as an example of how to live from a place of love. Jerry knew how to make people feel loved. Anytime you walked through the door to her house, she threw her arms around you and made you feel like you were the most important person in the world. Everyone loved her, even people she didn’t have the strongest of connections with, like her doctor and her hair stylist, because she knew how to immediately make them feel loved and appreciated.

Jerry lived her life joyfully. She was constantly laughing, and could always find the humor in a situation that could otherwise be very stressful. I often think about whether I’m making the most of my “one wild and precious life”, as the poet Mary Oliver described it. Am I doing all I can to fill my life with love and meaning? Am I living well? Jerry is someone who truly knew how to live well.

As creators, I think this is relevant for us because it’s so easy to get bogged down in the challenging or frustrating parts of creating. The administrative and financial aspects, the inevitable rejections from publishers, etc. But it can help in the face of all of that to remember that we create because it brings us joy. Jerry didn’t make comics, but if she had, I have no doubt the joy of creativity would always have been foremost in her mind.

I hope you’re all doing well. At a time that feels tender and vulnerable for me, I’m sending you all warm thoughts.

Best,
Sarah