à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Patience
Can I Find My Own Rhythm in Uber’s Algorithm?
In the last few days I have been Uber-ing around thanks to car trouble. It’s a stopgap measure until I decide what to do. To keep my travel expenses in check, I have tried out Uber’s most economical option, the Express Pool. A rider can choose to walk a few minutes to be picked up … Continue reading
How Many People, and Bulbs, Does It Take to Change a Light in Budapest?
Jet-lagged and dazed, I arrived to my Budapest rental on a rare sunny afternoon in early November. I’m revisiting a place I once called home and which evokes complicated emotions. On relatively short notice, I’d found a one-bedroom apartment through Homeaway.com. Paolo, the Italian property manager, greeted me when I stepped out of the taxi. I followed … Continue reading
What’s Scarier than Public Speaking? An Aikido Rank Test
It’s a truism that many people fear public speaking more than death. I can safely say that an Aikido rank test is more terrifying than addressing a group of people. When I began practicing Aikido in early 2017, I sought an intense physical and spiritual challenge to lift me out of a dark place. I … Continue reading
Note to Self: Everyone is Always Learning
After a recent Aikido class I indulged my sushi addiction at a restaurant that offers 50% off on weekends. With a pencil, I marked a few boxes on the nigiri menu and handed it to the server, a young, cacao skinned woman who looked like she had stepped out of a fashion magazine. While confirming … Continue reading
Of Feldenkrais and Failure
In order to change our mode of action we must change the image of ourselves that we carry within us. – Moshe Feldenkrais At times I have gone to great lengths to avoid failure, running from it as fast as prey escaping a predator. As a younger person, I believed failure was not acceptable, a stain on my … Continue reading
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
Recent comments