Or: A Brief History of Instruments I Bought but Never Learned to Play I have a confession to make. Over the course of my life, I have purchased a surprising number of musical instruments. Guitars. Keyboards. A mandolin. And, in one particularly spectacular lapse of judgment, a gigantic Moog organ.
I think October may be the most honest month of the year. Spring is full of promises. Summer behaves as though it might go on forever. December distracts us with lights and celebrations and lists of things to do. But October? October tells the truth. Things change. Things end. And
I can’t remember the last time I was truly bored. Not waiting-for-something-to-load bored. Not sitting-in-a-doctor’s-office-and-immediately-reaching-for-my-phone bored. Not standing-in-line-at-the-grocery-store-and-checking-email bored. I mean old-fashioned bored. The
Good morning. If yesterday’s newsletter arrived in your inbox and you thought, Well, Julie is certainly getting an early start on Monday… Nope. I made a mistake. That newsletter was supposed to go out today. Apparently, somewhere between writing it, scheduling it, checking it, changing something, checking it again,
This week, I’ve been revising slides, simplifying my logo, taking walks, visiting France through books and podcasts, and looking at the roses outside my office window. I’ve also been listening to the news and wondering how much more we are expected to absorb without becoming permanently furious. A
By late September, I start looking forward to my morning walks in a different way. The air is cooler now, and I can stay outside a little longer without feeling as though the heat is trying to send me home. I’ve never done especially well in hot weather. These
There is a question I have been thinking about lately, and it is considerably larger than Donald Trump, Republicans, Democrats or the next election. What happens when people no longer trust their government? Not when they disagree with it. Americans have been disagreeing with their government since there was an
For the past couple of newsletters, I’ve teased you about something. Why do I put MBA after my name? It isn’t because I think it makes me more important. It isn’t because I believe a degree makes someone smarter, wiser, or more worthy than someone without one.
I have a confession to make. I am a bit obsessed with France. The food, the art, the architecture, the language, the history, the way the French can make a loaf of bread feel like a matter of national importance. I love all of it. And increasingly, I find myself
Oh my. Which of the myriad things that are happening in our country right now should I write about today? Some Monday mornings I sit down to write Julie’s Journal and wonder what I want to talk about. Lately, the problem is exactly the opposite. There is so much
For a long time, I thought reinvention was something you did when life forced your hand. You lost the job.The children grew up.You retired.A relationship ended.Your health changed.Something you had counted on disappeared. Life closed a door, and after some amount of grieving, complaining, resisting
If I’ve seemed a little preoccupied lately, there’s a reason. I’ve been building something. And by “building,” I mean spending an astonishing number of hours staring at my computer, recording and rerecording myself, moving things around on slides, changing my mind, changing it back, learning new technology,