à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Possibility
Online Shopping: A First World Zen Parable
One version of a famous Zen tale goes like this: An old farmer had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically. “Maybe,” the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild … Continue reading
Of Feldenkrais and Furniture
“Each of us has our own mental furniture” – Dennis Leri, Feldenkrais Trainer After returning to Boulder from my second segment of Feldenkrais Training, an impulse arose to host a gathering of fellow “Feldies”. Having moved into a new and relatively spacious apartment just before my training resumed, and having progressively winnowed my possessions in the preceding years, … Continue reading
“Should” is a Dirty Word
Not long ago someone “should” on me. Inside, I recoiled and shut down rather than reach toward them. Since then, I’ve been trying to think of a context in which that word has a kind, benign or even neutral connotation. I can’t come up with a single one. Even saying the word, a single syllable with a hard … Continue reading
Dear New Yorker: Your Gluten Article is Hard to Swallow
Dear New Yorker, There was a time when I couldn’t wait for you to arrive in the mail each week. That was in the mid-1990s, when I was in my late twenties and worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Your covers and cartoons delighted me, your articles and essays informed and challenged me. Spending … Continue reading
Feldenkrais, Food and Self-Image
“I can’t imagine giving up gluten” – Facebook comment It’s more than a week into my trial separation from gluten. Rather than immediately stocking up on gluten-free substitutes, I doubled if not tripled my consumption of fruit and vegetables. My head is clearer, I feel lighter, I sleep better and, unexpectedly, my waistline is trimmer. While I’m marveling at the nearly immediate … Continue reading
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
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