à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Starting Over
Finding Feldenkrais, or Maybe It Found Me
What happens when you can’t do what you did before? Since returning from the Camino de Santiago with tendonitis, and vigorous, weight bearing exercise off limits, I’ve been asking myself a variation of that question: what opportunities have opened that I wasn’t available to in the past, either because I would have been hiking or … Continue reading
Commitment: to Process or Outcome?
A few days ago I attended a women’s group focused on the theme of commitment. The word itself elicited various reactions, from excitement to a sense of burden or duty. One woman even referred to it as a curse. I smiled and nodded. Despite having written about this subject, hearing the word can still create … Continue reading
Amtrak Case Study: How You Do Anything is How You Do Everything
A frequent business traveler on Amtrak’s Boston-New York route told me the following story. Early in the trip he’d go to the cafe car to buy a coffee, and the woman behind the counter asked if he had small bills. Since it was the beginning of the route, the train not yet full, he wondered … Continue reading
Trading Old for New, East for West
Sometimes the past visits in unexpected places. On Tuesday, I dropped off yet another donation of stuff. Normally, at this collection center, a brawny and frequently tattooed employee pushes a wheeled bin toward my car or approaches to help unload as I pull up. This time a slender man in his 60s ambled by as … Continue reading
Who Are We, Anyway?
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes. – Walt Whitman My last post (New Diagnosis: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), about clearing out stuff from the past, generated lively discussion in the comments and some questions from a reader: How much of “you” is made up of … Continue reading
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
Recent comments