Truth is stranger than fiction

Oh, she back !

Dearest Readers,

It’s taken me some time to work out how to write to you again.

I have been wading through a turbulent moment of my life and those of you who follow me on instagram may have noticed a plethora of cryptic posts about moving on etc etc.

For years I’ve been battling with a decision that my body, eventually, forced me to make. On my birthday this year I looked at my swollen eyes (that I could barely see out of) in the mirror and asked myself ‘How much longer are you going to do this?’. I was on a perfect holiday in the snow with family and friends and I was as miserable as I’ve ever been.

That was the moment I knew I couldn’t go another anniversary, Christmas, birthday within my marriage.

Adele said it best.

We all tell ourselves stories, don’t we? The ones we bring to dinner tables, embroidered with time. I’m fascinated with how those stories evolve as we get older, wiser and how they morph the more they are told. We can convince ourselves of all kinds of things.

I had almost convinced myself that I was OK.

**Reader, she was not OK.

There is a quote up in my office, one I wrote down in the early days of my separation. It is stuck there with sticky tape (lol, great for the paint on the walls) and it reads:

‘How they treat you is how they feel about you’

And it has become bible to me since I first came upon it.

Something I always say to my kids, and a piece of advice I will bestow upon you my dear readers is this: you cannot control the way others behave, you can only control how you react.

So here I am. Doing the one thing I know I can do no matter whatever comes my way :

Read, write and be a great mum.

Books are a salve for the hard moments and I’m so happy I have them to lean upon when I don’t (yet) have the right words to say.

So let’s make up for some lost time, shall we?

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‘Light Years’ by James Salter

The Blurb: Nedra and Viri are a married couple whose favoured life is centred around dinners, ingenious games with their children, enviable friends and near-perfect days passed skating on a frozen river or sunning on the beach. But fine cracks are beginning to spread through the shimmering surface of their life - flaws that will eventually mar the lovely picture beyond repair. Seductive, witty, tender and resonant, Light Years is an exquisite novel of lost lives and the elusiveness of happiness.

Oh my god this book…… the feelings I had whilst reading it. There are some novels that just *appear* when you need them and this is one of them. The thing I love about classics AND modern classics is that the plots are so succinct. Novels these days need a better edit (no shade to our amazing editors, but just sayin).

Some of my favorite quotes:

“Do you know what it is to be really intimate, to feel safe with someone who will never betray you, will never force you to act unlike yourself? That was what we had.”
― James Salter, Light Years

“Of them all, it was the true love. Of them all, it was the best. That other sumptuous love which made one drunk, which one longed for, envied, believed in, that was not life. It was what life was seeking; it was a suspension of life. But to be close to a child, for whom one spent everything, whose life was protected and nourished by one's own, to have that child beside one, at peace, was the real, the deepest, the only joy.”
― James Salter, Light Years

From Here To The Great Unknown

by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough

I love everything Elvis. When I went to see Baz Lurhmann’s film a few years ago when I was invited to the premiere in Sydney at the State Theatre. I had three champagnes and so everything was SUPER technicolor and I cried my eyes out the entire time (standard).

I’m drawn to tragedy, unforgettable romance and stories about the perils of fame—how it changes people and what they’ll do to achieve it. So, whilst From Here to the Great Unknown isn’t exactly a literary masterpiece, I found it fascinating to witness “The King” through his daughter’s eyes. Hearing Elvis’s story from a child’s perspective added a deeply personal, poignant layer to his legacy.

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Last year when I was in LA I read Fast Days, Slow Company by Eve Babitz and was hypnotized by Eve’s descriptions of Los Angeles, having lived there on and off for years. There is a magnetic pocket of LA called Laurel Canyon, the suburb we used to live in, rich in rock n roll / film / literary history.

My son in the middle of our Laurel Canyon renovation

Living in Laurel Canyon was like being a part of a tapestry. The Canyon Country store, the windy streets, the beautiful trees and peace, despite being so near to noisy Sunset Boulevard.

Joan Didion & Eve Babitz were cornerstones of that magical time in Laurel Canyon during the 60s and 70s and a new book has just been released following both their trajectories as writers, lovers and mothers (for Didion, not Babitz).

Didion & Babitz was truly one of the most phenomenal pieces of non fiction I’ve read. Lili Anolik has such a firm grasp on these women’s stories, their intimate relationships and friendship with one another that you can’t help but keep reading and reading and reading.

I found myself up at night thinking about them, how they might ruminate over story ideas in quiet rooms. I fell in love with their unique personalities and the way they each walked through the world.

And that COVER!!!!! GAHHHH!!!! I want to BE Joan Didion. Alas, I am not so chic.

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I want to finish by touching on the visit we had from The Duchess of York a few weeks ago in Perth. I’ve met a few celebrities in my time but this interaction was SO transformational and left me with a lot to think about.

The Duchess was one of the most gracious, kind people I have ever met and gave each and every member of our community her fullest attention.

Witnessing these exchanges and knowing that we have created a space that facilitates moments like this made it one of the happiest days of my life (I kid you not). I am so proud of my incredible team who continue to shine and keep the lights on whilst I’m here in Sydney.

As a result of this visit The Duchess and I have continued our conversation about how we can further create magic together so, watch this space.

Until then I will love you and leave you.

Happy Reading !

Jessie

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