à la carte spirit by ilona fried
ilona fried
Diagnosis: Spiritual Whiplash
What’s “spiritual whiplash”? In my case, snapping from deep gratitude to intoxicating greed in less time than it takes to say namaste. The gratitude: As I wrote here (“Cents and Sensible Shoes”) I worried I’d be stuck wearing closed-toed shoes all summer since I need to use orthotics all the time. When I learned that … Continue reading
El Camino with a King Size Bed
“Life is a journey, not a destination.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson I thought of this oft-quoted phrase when, on a Thursday at the end of May, the final Delta flight on my route from Denver to Montreal was cancelled. That it was aborted after we had boarded the aircraft, taxied onto the runway and then, … Continue reading
Of Mountains and Mark Doty
Somehow, I managed to not know of poet and memoirist Mark Doty until Lighthouse Writers Workshop brought him to the Denver area over the weekend. Friends raved about him, so I attended a “Writers Studio”, a combination of poetry reading and interview on Saturday, and his craft talk on Sunday. That the first event took … Continue reading
Why “Fake It ‘Til You Make It” is ‘Fekakta’
Of all the sound bites abounding in our culture, “fake it ’til you make it” has widespread appeal. And for those of you who did not have Yiddish-speaking elders, fekakta means something akin to “f***ed up”. The “fake it” mantra is supposed to help people. Feeling blue? Pretend you feel better until you *really* feel … Continue reading
How Will You Liberate Yourself Today?
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. – Viktor E. Frankl My father used to honor the second day of May as his second birthday. It was not an occasion for … Continue reading
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
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