à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Sensitivity
My Toilet Paper Quest Unraveled an Ancient Memory
Ever since I walked El Camino de Santiago, I have had an aversion to buying products in bulk. Stocking up, stockpiling, or hoarding doesn’t make me feel safe or secure. Rather, that behavior makes me feel stifled, crowded and weighed down, as if fear or scarcity is occupying too much space in my nervous system. … Continue reading
We Are All Each Other
A few weeks ago, which seems like another lifetime, my local food co-op removed the cafe seating in the store. While watching an employee take the interior chairs and tables away as I sat at a counter by the window, a deep fear churned in my gut, as if a rug were being pulled out … Continue reading
Why We Need True Diplomacy, and Feldenkrais, More than Ever
When I learned that George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, would be testifying in front of Congress as part of the impeachment inquiry, I thought: Thank God. I met him during the 1991-1992 academic year when were both students at The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in … Continue reading
Want to Go Far? Don’t Push. Play!
“How far did you get?” The young woman asking me this question worked at a pop-up boat rental operation in Western Massachusetts. I had just rented a kayak for an hour, my first time in such a watercraft. I had been wanting to try kayaking for a while, yet whenever the impulse arose, the long-ago … Continue reading
An Apology to Oatmeal
For much of my life I didn’t want to go near oatmeal, the Birkenstocks of food: good for you but an aesthetic disaster. Dull of hue and bland of taste, what was there to love? Oatmeal conjured thoughts of gruel, served to Oliver and his fellow orphans in Dickensian England, or porridge, something thick that … Continue reading
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