à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Slowing Down
When a Bargain Comes at a Price
“Your clothes should be as important as your skin.” ― Amit Kalantri A day before my Feldenkrais training resumed in Santa Fe, I drove to a shopping center to buy a notebook and get my hair trimmed. On the way out, I passed a Ross (Dress for Less) Store. It’s not a place I usually visit, but since … Continue reading
Feldenkrais: How Do We Know We’re at Choice?
My fourth grade teacher Miss Fredericks, whose heavily lacquered blond bouffant resembled a golden helmet, gave us an exercise I still remember. She handed each of us a sheet of mimeographed instructions and asked us to read them to ourselves, silently. Perusing the purplish letters on the white sheet, I began to follow the instructions, each … Continue reading
Feldenkrais: Learning as Prayer
Learning is turning darkness, which is the absence of light, into light. – Moshe Feldenkrais While decluttering last spring, more painstakingly and ruthlessly than ever before, I found handouts from a class on prayer, circa 2008. I had enrolled in the class at Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, MA, to see if I could I transform my relationship … Continue reading
Road Trip as American Camino: A chance to “shunpike’
The word “shunpike” just crossed my radar. From “shun” and “turnpike”, it originally referred to avoiding toll roads, but can now mean preferring lightly traveled country roads instead of highways, whether fee-based or not. El Camino de Santiago and a road trip offer a choice of “way”, both in terms of the different types of surfaces, and also … Continue reading
Texting to Enlightenment? Spiritual Practice on the Go
Not to fear, I don’t text while driving, cycling, or walking for that matter. But after getting an iPhone after years of resisting (and recoiling from texting), I began exploring its possibilities. On my road trip, texting comes in handy when visiting friends in different cities and confirming last minute logistics. At times, texting was more reliable than e-mail, when my phone’s wireless … Continue reading
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
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