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Jillian Lee

@myeraofbeing

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I retired early✨I fell in love ❤️
I moved to Paris 🇫🇷 I travel ✈️
Musings about my Era of Being 📝
Living softer, deeper, truer, now 🌿

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I retired early ✨
I fell in love ❤️
I moved to Paris 🇫🇷
I travel ✈️

My posts are musings about my Era of Being 📝
Living softer, deeper, truer, now 🌿 by @myeraofbeing

I retired early ✨
I fell in love ❤️
I moved to Paris 🇫🇷
I travel ✈️

My posts are musings about my Era of Being 📝
Living softer, deeper, truer, now 🌿 by @myeraofbeing

I retired early ✨
I fell in love ❤️
I moved to Paris 🇫🇷
I travel ✈️

My posts are musings about my Era of Being 📝
Living softer, deeper, truer, now 🌿 by @myeraofbeing

Three days sick, in bed? Unacceptable.

In my old life, this would have been a disaster. I would have tried to hide it, push through, and keep performing, even while feeling miserable. I’d have made mistakes, let people down, possibly infected others, and prolonged my illness, all while worrying that people thought that I wasn’t “doing” enough. If I did have to stay home, there was a voice in my head yelling “you are wasting precious time!”

Some of that was the reality of my work. My livelihood depended on showing up. Being sick meant losing work. But the voice in my head telling me that time not spent working was time wasted? That was something else entirely. Hustle culture had a grip on me.

***

Three years ago, I chose a different life. One where I can take the time I need without fearing for my livelihood or worrying about what others think. One where I no longer have to earn my rest by pushing myself to the limit first.

Now? In my Era of Being? I cancel everything. I stay in bed. I get bored. I sleep. I let myself be sick.

And yet sometimes, that old voice still shows up. Today, as I lay in bed, it told me I was wasting time, contributing nothing.

But instead of listening, I started writing. I’m learning to recognize that voice for what it is: an old way of thinking that no longer needs to run my life.

My time doesn’t have to be productive to be valuable. I don’t need to be “doing” to have value.

These three days weren’t wasted. I was sick. My body needed rest, and that’s what I gave it.

This post isn’t about a beautiful Paris morning, a memorable trip, or a wonderful evening out. It’s just my musing about learning, little by little, that my life isn’t passing me by when I rest.

I’m actually living it very beautifully by putting my health first. 🌿

(❤️ Thanks for looking after me so I could look after myself @mrvmarc ) by @myeraofbeing

It is in these precious moments that we come to know the meaning of life.

I am sad to share that Marc’s Dad passed away this month. Yesterday we celebrated his life.

I didn’t know Henri for very long, but I am inordinately glad that I got to meet him.

Several people expressed to me that he was so glad to have met me, too. So glad that I had entered into Marc’s life, and into theirs.

But the joy is truly mine.

Meeting Henri, and then being welcomed yesterday into the embrace of his extended family and so many of their dear friends, was a profound honour. As an outsider, I wasn’t just politely addressed as Marc’s new partner, a stranger. I was completely wrapped in love by everyone.

It’s difficult to put into words what I’m feeling. There was so much warmth and so much tenderness. Love filled every space, to surround everyone there. It was palpable. Tangible. I felt held by it, welcomed into it, and deeply moved by it.

Even in the sadness of saying goodbye, there was something extraordinarily beautiful about all of it.

And I found myself thinking about Marc.

It was neat to recognize the man I love in the amazing people who raised him. The attentive, loving, considerate person I fell in love with didn’t become that way by accident. Now I see so much of the goodness of his parents - in him. The way he cares. The way he shows up for the people he loves. The quiet, steady kindness that makes me feel so fortunate to be loved by him.

Marc is who he is, in part, because of the love his Dad (and Mom) gave him.

So, yesterday, surrounded by the people who knew Henri best, I was seeing another part of the story that made Marc the man he is.

I wish I had had more time to know his Dad. I wish there had been more conversations, more shared moments, more opportunities to know him beyond the little time we had.

But I am so grateful for the time we got. And for the extraordinary privilege of being welcomed so wholeheartedly into a family whose love for one another is so evident, even in their grief.

Some people leave us with a greater understanding of the people we love.

And some goodbyes remind us of what is love itself. ❤️ by @myeraofbeing

It was an amazing night out at the spectacular Fondation Louis Vuitton @fondationlv for the opening of their latest exhibition, celebrating the works and art collection of Gustave Fayet. ✨

I have a membership to FLV and look forward to exploring its exhibitions, but the fancy opening nights are not really Marc’s thing.

He joined me for this one, and am I ever glad he did.

The collection was much bigger and more impressive than I expected it to be. The people-watching was top-notch. The whole evening felt magical—not just because of what we were seeing, but because I got to share my sense of wonder with this incredibly special man I found.

Date night is every night for us, but I still marvel at and savour every evening out together.

There’s something about experiencing a beautiful thing with Marc that makes the experience even richer. I notice more. I look a little closer. I point out the details that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. I get to talk about what moves me, what surprises me, what I might have missed.

The date was an experience that became more than a memory of what we saw.

It becomes a memory of how we shared it.

That’s one of my life’s little luxuries: not simply having wonderful experiences, but having Marc beside me to share the wonder. And then getting to carry a little more of the wonder home with me. ❤️🌿

This is My Era of Being.

With @mrvmarc by @myeraofbeing

What they did was wrong. What they are continuing to do is wrong. Women of the world unite. Speak out against MASSIVE INJUSTICE against women. I am Jane Doe. by @myeraofbeing

We celebrated the full harvest moon and fall wine festival in the Hauts-de-Seine, overlooking the Eiffel Tower, in the vineyard of Suresnes last night. 🌕🍇

Suresnes used to be very well known for its wines. It’s built on an east-facing hill rising up from the Seine and was once largely agricultural, before the railway to Suresnes and bridge over the Seine were built.

Today, only one hectare of vineyard remains, but even at that, it is the largest operational vineyard in the Île-de-France region. Chardonnay and Sauvignon grapes are still grown here.

Hilariously, they were out of wine by the time we arrived. 🥹

But there was still something wonderful about being there.

Standing in a vineyard, under a full harvest moon, with the Eiffel Tower sparkling in the distance, music in the air and watching the evening unfold.

Sometimes the best part of an evening isn’t what you came for.

It’s simply being there to experience it. 🌕✨ by @myeraofbeing

Sound on 🔊for a little happiness boost.

Fall flowers in Paris.

Just taking note of the beauty around me.

My era of being. by @myeraofbeing

I can’t stand a long, lazy, fall day in Paris.

JK.

In my era of being, « slower » is one of my key words. I focus on how to live slow, slow travel, and do « slow Paris ».

Here’s one way Marc and I do slow living here:

We spend a whole afternoon at the Jardin du Luxembourg in the 2e arrondissement.

1. We stop by a boulangerie to pick up « jambon emmental » sandwiches first. (Hot tip- we could only find 2 boulangeries in the vicinity, and the one we chose was not amazing. Find a boulangerie close to home, before heading to the Jardin)
2. We walk the perimetre, through the formal gardens and trees planted in patterns.
3. We install ourselves in the iconic green, reclined, Paris park chairs and soak up the sun.
4. We marvel at the beauty of the architecture of the Palais du Luxembourg; former royal résidence turned Senate.
5. We gaze at the children's sailboats on the pond. You can rent them for 8€ from Les Voiliers du Luxembourg.
6. And if you’re reading this and you just can’t slow down quite this much; There’s also a replica of the prototype of Gustave Eiffel’s Statue of Liberty, a children’s marionette theatre, ponies, tennis, an apiary, and much more that can keep you occupied for hours, without changing locations!

For me, slowing down has been life-saving. I was burnt out and stressed out. After a fast-paced, demanding, hustle-driven career, slow living has given me space to heal—to spend lots and lots of time in safe places, doing safe things, and slowly quieting the extremes of a fight-or-flight response caused by years of struggling for everything.

For me, slow living and a slow Paris lifestyle have become a way of coming back to myself, a way of living that feels gentler, deeper, and truer. by @myeraofbeing

Hello from Paris, with love.

Today is a good day.

That is all 😊 by @myeraofbeing

What if I quit struggling, brooding and constantly yearning to be ‘better’? To be ‘enough’?

What if I stopped treating myself like a work in progress and allowed myself to believe that I am already whole, already worthy, already enough—exactly as I am?

THIS IS WHAT I AM EMBRACING IN MY ERA OF BEING.

It means I don’t need more discipline. I don’t need to try harder. I don’t need to change.
It means I get to SHOW UP as myself. No more is required. No less is needed.
It means I don’t have to become someone else before I am worthy of a full and wonderful life.

Instead, I get to, as Brené Brown suggests:
✨let go of perfectionism and cultivate self-compassion.
✨let go of comparing myself and cultivate personal creativity.
✨let go of anxiety as a lifestyle and cultivate calm & stillness.

The old way was so taxing and did such a disservice to me and to the world around me. Not fully showing up with all my love and all my vulnerabilities robbed the world of intimacy and beauty that I am no longer willing to sacrifice.

Because when I was busy trying to be better, I wasn’t fully here.
I held parts of myself back. Made myself smaller. Edited myself in ways that were fake. I was so focused on ‘becoming’ that I missed the authenticity of being.

I don’t want to do that anymore. I want to embrace showing up with all of it—the messy parts, the imperfect parts, the tender parts, the joyful parts. I want to laugh more loudly, be more vulnerable, and be present for the people I love and the life I am actually living.

Being “enough” was never something I needed to make happen.

It was something I needed to stop arguing with myself about.

So now, like I said, in my era of being, I am embracing… not becoming a better version of myself… but finally, fully, being my actual self 💕 by @myeraofbeing