à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Family
Jerusalem from the Inside of a Pool
My Zen teacher likes to say, “How we do anything is how we do everything.” If the same can be said of a society, would the workings of a single pool reflect the culture at large? Last week I loosely considered this question while swimming almost every day at the Jerusalem Pool (it was closed … Continue reading
Counting Cats in Jerusalem
“I’ve counted 78 cats so far,” my niece, who recently became Bat Mitzvah, told me a few days ago. Three of us, the Bat Mitzvah gal, her eight year old cousin and I were walking back to our temporary Jerusalem “home” from an impromptu swim at the pool. “Look! There’s more!” she said, her face … Continue reading
To Hang On or Let Go?
There is an end-of-Camino ritual at Finisterre, to burn something from the trip (or toss it into the sea). The symbolism is personal: for some, it could be a form of spiritual completion, a break with the past and/or the promise of a new beginning. A few days before arriving to the coast, I walked … Continue reading
Reentry: A Rude Awakening
To be fair, I did not go directly from the Camino to the US; I spent a few days resting in Santiago before heading to Madrid on Sunday to catch a plane yesterday. To be honest, I was not eager to return. I considered extending my stay and paying the change fee for my flight, … Continue reading
Notes from a Liminal Space
Even though my body is still in Denver, I feel like I’m in a netherworld, between what was and what will be when I return from the Camino. It’s a wide openness I once feared but am now learning to inhabit. Suspending an identity is equally freeing and disconcerting. Yom Kippur, which ended tonight, amplified … Continue reading
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
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