à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Displacement
Reverse Culture Shock: Being Moroccan in MA Brought Mixed Results
Moroccans share. They share tight spaces, such as cramped food stalls and narrow alleys. They share tea with visitors. To my initial shock, they even share taxis. To enter an occupied cab felt disconcerting but I quickly learned it’s faster and cheaper to ride in a car that already had a passenger, especially if they … Continue reading
Embracing Impermanence in Marrakech
Just over a week ago, I stepped off an airport shuttle into the thrum of the Medina, the old city within Marrakech, to join an Unsettled retreat. This company orchestrates programs that mix structure with freedom, connection with independence, and work with exploration for people who wish to adventure in community. One of my local hosts took … Continue reading
When Gratitude Turns to Greed in Less Than an Internet Minute
Just a week ago, I felt enormous gratitude that The Wisdom Daily decided to invest time and resources to adapt one of my articles to a short video. My essay about Moshe Feldenkrais, written six months ago, was no longer at the forefront of my mind. In the Internet age, most content arises and then disappears … Continue reading
Convoluted Kaddish for a Complicated Relation
[note: this post is 2-3 times longer than usual] “Oy, es iz shver tsu zayn a Yid!” — Oy, it’s hard to be a Jew The world changed in large and subtle ways in early November. The day before the U.S. election I received a short e-mail from a distant cousin in Munich. She told me that her … Continue reading
Feldenkrais Off the Mat: Awareness Through Mushrooms
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. – Marcel Proust It’s quite easy to live somewhere and stop seeing it. If a person is distracted, preoccupied, rushed, or hyper focused, or if their mind has told them that “there is nothing to see” or “they’ve seen it … Continue reading
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
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