à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Camino de Santiago
Collecting: Choice or Compulsion?
When I was four, my parents packed me and my two brothers into our pale yellow Chevy Impala station wagon and drove from Massachusetts to Mexico City for my father’s sabbatical year. Throughout those months we ventured to different towns and villages, each of which specialized in at least one distinctive craft, many of which my parents admired enough to buy. … Continue reading
Is My iPhone an Introvert, Too? What it Takes to Recharge
When I unexpectedly stayed overnight in Marin County, CA, not long ago, I relied heavily on my iPhone. Its mapping software helped me drive to Sebastopol and, the next day, to navigate to Point Reyes National Seashore. Without my car charger, I noticed the phone’s battery drained quickly during the day, similar to what happens to this introvert when I’m overextended, … Continue reading
Feldenkrais in ‘The Brain’s Way of Healing’
The Brain’s Way of Healing by best selling author Norman Doidge, M.D. is being heralded in the Feldenkrais community for helping to put it on the map. I ordered it to put myself in the shoes, or eyeballs, of a person first learning about Feldenkrais through Dr. Doidge’s prose. As someone who writes regularly about Feldenkrais experiences that … Continue reading
Feldenkrais Functional Integration: Learning to Live Lightly
Through awareness, we can learn to move with astonishing lightness and freedom at almost any age. – Moshe Feldenkrais During my last Feldenkrais training segment, I had a Functional Integration (FI) lesson with Julie Casson Rubin, one of my new trainers. In an FI, the practitioner teaches the student new patterns of movement through touch and/or … Continue reading
A Camino Pilgrim Visits Costco
When I went to Costco many years ago, with my sister-in-law, I couldn’t wait to evacuate. The harsh lighting and din bothered me. The mountains of merchandise and the super sized containers turned me off. As someone who appreciates thoughtfully designed displays in specialty shops, ideally uncrowded ones, I found nothing visually pleasing, enticing or artisanal about the experience. Costco seemed designed for … Continue reading
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
Recent comments