à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Travel
On Being a Tourist in My Own Backyard
When I was an active member of the Colorado Mountain Club, hiking steep trails and bagging peaks, it was tempting to pooh-pooh people who “cheated” and drove to the tops of mountains. At times, some of my fellow hikers demeaned folks who were not in good shape or were too “lazy” to spend time in … 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
Now Playing: Spiritual Ping-Pong
My internal experience reminds me of Ping-Pong. On one side of the net is gratitude, well-being and acceptance. On the other is, as Zen monk Cheri Huber points out, ego’s insidious chorus of “something is wrong” or “not enough”. And my attention is the ball, bouncing over the net between the two sides, or flying … Continue reading
El Camino with a King Size Bed
“Life is a journey, not a destination.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson I thought of this oft-quoted phrase when, on a Thursday at the end of May, the final Delta flight on my route from Denver to Montreal was cancelled. That it was aborted after we had boarded the aircraft, taxied onto the runway and then, … Continue reading
Ponderings: Passover in Two Places
I spent Passover’s first half in Israel. The day of the Seder, I traveled by bus to Jerusalem’s Malcha Mall with my oldest niece. She was meeting a friend, and I was on the hunt for comfortable shoes. At the entrance we went our separate ways. While I failed to find footwear, I wandered around, … Continue reading
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
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