à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Awareness
COVID Coping: Making Art with Mother Nature
“Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”― Mary Oliver In early April, I wondered what I could do to keep myself from losing my mind during lockdown. I rustled through the file cabinet of memory to find something that could serve me now. For many years I made mosaic art. … Continue reading
My Toilet Paper Quest Unraveled an Ancient Memory
Ever since I walked El Camino de Santiago, I have had an aversion to buying products in bulk. Stocking up, stockpiling, or hoarding doesn’t make me feel safe or secure. Rather, that behavior makes me feel stifled, crowded and weighed down, as if fear or scarcity is occupying too much space in my nervous system. … Continue reading
A Recipe for Life: Zero Expectations + Zero Judgments + Endless Curiosity
I am in Florence, Massachusetts, a small town once home to a silk mill, named after the Italian city. As an experiment in rural living, I’m renting the lower part of a secluded home surrounded by woods, with no other residence in sight. The mailbox is a five minute walk down a narrow, winding driveway. … Continue reading
An Apology to Oatmeal
For much of my life I didn’t want to go near oatmeal, the Birkenstocks of food: good for you but an aesthetic disaster. Dull of hue and bland of taste, what was there to love? Oatmeal conjured thoughts of gruel, served to Oliver and his fellow orphans in Dickensian England, or porridge, something thick that … Continue reading
Missed Connections: When a Dream Portends Reality
In a world where talk is cheap and fast, to feel listened to is a precious gift. That is why I have practiced reflective listening for several years via Living Compassion. It’s created a structured program, with clear and precise guidelines for how to participate. Each quarter it assigns reflective listening “buddies”. Last night I … Continue reading
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