I’m pretty sure I killed it. Of course, it wasn’t intentional. I remember hearing an expletive (and I was alone in the car, so it must have been me) when I watched it in the rearview mirror, a tumble of feathers somersaulting, the momentum flopping it sideways over and over when it hit the ground, […]
Author Archives: Julie Ann Luoma
Shift: One Woman’s Treasure
I have a new guy in my life. His name is Dusty. He’s from Texas. We met, of all places, in a second-hand store. I must have gasped when I saw him. The woman standing next to me put a hand firmly on my elbow, dragging my gaze back from two aisles over, to her […]
Shift: It’s in the Bag
My husband decided he wanted a project for his retirement. Music keeps an aging brain nimble and alert, he’d heard. And he was proud of his Scots heritage, so he settled on the bagpipes. And, with goodwill and dutiful support, I encouraged him. I, who was familiar with such extraordinary instruments as the piano, the […]
Shift: Crash Course
I took a whole year off. Cold turkey. No explanations. No make-up. No mascara, no lip liner, no eyeliner. No nothing. Naked face to the world. The idea: to focus on inner beauty, prove to myself that I had value beyond how I look. That, and to wean myself from the vice of vanity that […]
Shift – Up Close and Personal
Chickens. It was a whole new world. We got Betty and Boop from a neighbouring island and brought the girls home to weed the garden. They cluck and trill and scratch and poop. They bathe in the dust and nest in the coop. Oh, the reciprocity: I keep them healthy and safe, they peck and […]