Dear Seekers is a newsletter and podcast by Sasha Xiao, for the curious souls seeking artistic and spiritual fulfilment. If you love it, please consider sharing it with others. Here’s my About page. Any questions or feedback, you can directly hit reply to this email.
In today’s episode, I’m joined by Jackie Kai Ellis, a multi-hyphenate who splits her time between Paris and Vancouver.
Who is Jackie? Oh gosh. Where should I begin? Jackie has started many creative and artistic endeavors in her life- big and small. After pursuing her passion for pastry in Paris, Jackie opened an award winning bakery and cafe Beaucoup in Vancouver, which since then, has been sold to two of her original teams. She wrote a memoir - The Measure of My Powers which later became a national best seller. She created The Paris Tour that hosts pastry tours in Paris, and now she writes an advice column- Ask JKE for Vitruvi’s Natural Habitat magazine and is the head of Product development for Flax Home. There are more, so much more to share about Jackie.
What I found Jackie most intriguing isn’t about the things that “look good on papers”, but her way of seeing and living life as a forever evolving one- one that our yesterdays do not define our todays and tomorrows and one that continues to change and shift. We know this is often easier said than done when we’re constantly under the societal pressure to “figure ourselves out already” - the sooner, the better.
In this conversation, we talk about memory, its fluidity, movement and how it influences the way we see ourselves. Jackie shares her creative process of writing her memoir and what it has helped her discover. We also touch upon digital footprint and exchange some thoughts. We caught Jackie in a very transitional space as she is expecting her first baby- at the age of 42. She also shares how she is feeling now about becoming a mother.
All photos by Joann Pai. Some were taken in Jackie’s home in Paris and some are from Jackie and her partner’s previous home in Vancouver.
Connect soon, until then, stay safe and curious.
Cheers,
Sasha
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