à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Judaism
Flooded with Gratitude
The flooding in Boulder, CO and surrounding communities has killed a few people, ruined roads and displaced multitudes. Countless others bail water and dispose of sewage contaminated carpets and furnishings as the rain continues to fall. Being on a flood plain, many are uninsured for such a calamity, one that continues to unfold, whose final … Continue reading
El Camino with a King Size Bed
“Life is a journey, not a destination.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson I thought of this oft-quoted phrase when, on a Thursday at the end of May, the final Delta flight on my route from Denver to Montreal was cancelled. That it was aborted after we had boarded the aircraft, taxied onto the runway and then, … Continue reading
How Will You Liberate Yourself Today?
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. – Viktor E. Frankl My father used to honor the second day of May as his second birthday. It was not an occasion for … Continue reading
Ponderings: Passover in Two Places
I spent Passover’s first half in Israel. The day of the Seder, I traveled by bus to Jerusalem’s Malcha Mall with my oldest niece. She was meeting a friend, and I was on the hunt for comfortable shoes. At the entrance we went our separate ways. While I failed to find footwear, I wandered around, … Continue reading
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
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
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