à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Awareness
Dear New Yorker: Your Gluten Article is Hard to Swallow
Dear New Yorker, There was a time when I couldn’t wait for you to arrive in the mail each week. That was in the mid-1990s, when I was in my late twenties and worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Your covers and cartoons delighted me, your articles and essays informed and challenged me. Spending … Continue reading
Feldenkrais and the Tyranny of “Touch Your Toes”
“…some have the knees straight as if it were a rule that you have to touch the floor having the knees straight.” – Moshe Feldenkrais, The Master Moves One afternoon in my Feldenkrais program, trainer Katrin Smithback invited us to take a break from a seated activity by having us stand. “Now,” she said, “touch your toes.” … Continue reading
Feldenkrais: Drawing a New Self
Decades ago, as a tween, I took a class at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA to learn to draw cartoon characters. While I don’t have those drawings in front of me, what I recall is that we started by sketching approximate shapes: circles, ovals, cylinders, whatever roughly characterized a face, arm, torso, belly or … Continue reading
When a Bargain Comes at a Price
“Your clothes should be as important as your skin.” ― Amit Kalantri A day before my Feldenkrais training resumed in Santa Fe, I drove to a shopping center to buy a notebook and get my hair trimmed. On the way out, I passed a Ross (Dress for Less) Store. It’s not a place I usually visit, but since … Continue reading
Feldenkrais: How Do We Know We’re at Choice?
My fourth grade teacher Miss Fredericks, whose heavily lacquered blond bouffant resembled a golden helmet, gave us an exercise I still remember. She handed each of us a sheet of mimeographed instructions and asked us to read them to ourselves, silently. Perusing the purplish letters on the white sheet, I began to follow the instructions, each … Continue reading
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
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