Post Studio Life

Well I finally made it to visit my Aunty Laura, after so many years of being apart. As a child, I thought of her as a real life fairy. 🧚 I wasn’t sure after such a long time of not seeing each other how my childish romanticised image of her would compare to my adult perception… if it’s even possible, I admire and love her even more, and feel so deeply connected to her. When they say, “cut from the same cloth”, that is how I feel with my aunty.

She was present for my most formative years, taking care of me regularly alongside her son Jake, who was born just a few weeks after me. From birth til age 7 or so, she was one of my primary caretakers. Life got a lot more complicated after that, with job changes, divorces, lalalala etc., and we saw each other less but still occasionally til I was an early teenager, and then she moved down south to Georgia. Soon after i left the country and we just lost touch.

I got to spend time with her son Jake, my very first friend in the whole wide world… and we laughed like not a damn day had passed between childhood and now. He has married an incredible woman named Erin, who I wish I had met years and years ago and would most definitely hang out with regularly if we lived anywhere near each other. Their children, Clyde and Poppy, made their way so swiftly into my heart 💖

While we were there, we laughed and talked for so many hours, kayaked into the sunset of Lake Oconee, played silly games with the kids, made clean delightful dishes, swam every single day, did yoga outside, went for walks with the dog, exchanged little nuggets of knowledge, laughed at Jeff’s dad jokes, and marvelled at my aunts “curiosity cabinet” with all her little collected treasures (butterflies and feathers and wood and shells galore!) and her extensive book shelf (ALL THE KINDS OF BOOKS I LOVE! From unique artsy/poetry pieces to cook books to nature to meditation and ecology books… reading heaven!)

I cried so many grateful tears while there and even more on the car ride as we pulled away, wearing a purple shirt Aunty Laura gave me saying softly, “when you wear it you will feel me hugging you”. I am trying to focus on being happy for the magical time we had, and allowing myself to briefly be sad about the fact that for now, it has to be over.

I will never let so much time pass again, and will never take my Shulman family for granted… as my aunty would say, “you are my people”, I love all of you!Lue lisää