à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Swimming
Swimming to Celebrate
Yesterday at 7:16 a.m. I waded into the local reservoir with Boulder Aquatic Masters. It organizes private swims before the main beach opens: without motorboats and crowds, the area is relatively silent, the water calm. At that hour, the air is still cool. It’s a bit like being on a watery Camino de Santiago: instead … Continue reading
Tendonitis as Spiritual Teacher
Until last autumn, when I overused one of my tendons on the Camino de Santiago, I had never sustained a mobility-impairing injury. While people may say that I was lucky to be injury-free for that long, I often wondered if my fear of getting hurt prevented me from exploring exhilarating and risky pursuits. Maybe I … Continue reading
Cents and Sensible Shoes
The horrifying collapse of the building in Bangladesh was on my mind when I went on another shoe expedition this weekend. With Denver temperatures reaching the 80s, I wondered if I’d have to imprison my toes all summer in lace-ups that accommodate my boat-sized, white orthotics. Since Colorado might as well be called Flip-flopistan (some … Continue reading
Jerusalem from the Inside of a Pool
My Zen teacher likes to say, “How we do anything is how we do everything.” If the same can be said of a society, would the workings of a single pool reflect the culture at large? Last week I loosely considered this question while swimming almost every day at the Jerusalem Pool (it was closed … Continue reading
Resistance: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Recently I bought swim paddles, pieces of molded grey plastic that attach to my hands with red rubber straps. Wearing them, I feel like a crustacean with oddly shaped claws. These appendages are designed to create more resistance in the water and build muscle, but my main interest was to vary my workout so I’d … Continue reading
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
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