by Lavinia Plonka | Nov 21, 2023 | Kinesa Newsletter, The Creative Body
The harvest is done. The deer got all the grapes. The voles feasted on the sweet potatoes (I rescued eight). The tomato hornworms had their way with, yes, my tomatoes – in spite of my propitiating the devas, thanking the parasitic wasps who laid their eggs on...
by Lavinia Plonka | Oct 11, 2023 | Kinesa Newsletter
Shortly after I had given up my performing career, I was invited to a Halloween party. I had just spent the last 25 years donning costumes, performing on stage and at hundreds of parties as everything from a Florida retiree to a Star Trek character. The idea of...
by Lavinia Plonka | Sep 11, 2023 | Kinesa Newsletter |
I bought a new office chair. On sale. Good deal. It arrived in a box. Weighed a ton. When I opened the box, and saw the pieces, it seemed like a no brainer. The illustrated instructions had no words at all, just a bunch of letters and arrows pointing to parts. I began...
by Lavinia Plonka | Sep 11, 2023 | Kinesa Newsletter
I wasn’t allowed to complain as a child. Each time I whined because I wanted a parka like Kathy H’s or a Barbie like Mary J’s or at least pizza, I was admonished. “You have no right to complain. You have not been captured and tortured by Nazis. You have not had your...
by Lavinia Plonka | Jul 5, 2023 | Kinesa Newsletter
While I love how the Feldenkrais Method helps improve the way we move; improving balance, flexibility, and resilience, I’ve always been much more impressed with how it has improved my inner balance, my mental flexibility and my emotional resilience. The simple and...
by Lavinia Plonka | Jun 1, 2023 | Kinesa Newsletter, Movement as Medicine
Last night, one of the raccoons that have taken up residence under my shed discovered the cat door. What had previously been a lovable pack of rascals had now become a potentially harmful intruder. I try to live in harmony with nature’s insistence on introducing...
by Lavinia Plonka | May 7, 2023 | Kinesa Newsletter
About 15 years ago, I was out to dinner with a friend at a trendy nouvelle cuisine restaurant. There was a dish boasting dasheen wraps. I asked the waiter what that was. “That’s what they make the tortilla from,” was his answer. In other words, he was clueless. But...
by Lavinia Plonka | Apr 5, 2023 | Kinesa Newsletter, The Creative Body
I never thought I’d live to see this again. No. Not the Grand Canyon. Not the Aurora Borealis. Shoulder pads. They’re back. Everywhere all at once – from Balenciaga to H&M – as if we’ve been dropped into an alternate reality channeling the 80’s. The...
by Lavinia Plonka | Mar 5, 2023 | Kinesa Newsletter
I’m glad I don’t have to live on my garden harvest. Each year I double dig and hack away at black walnut roots that are snaking their poisonous way in. Yet I always miss a few and watch in dismay as my exuberantly flowering plants sadly droop and succumb to the...
by Lavinia Plonka | Feb 14, 2023 | Kinesa Newsletter
I recently stumbled across a song from the great musician, Sun Ra called Make a Mistake. The lyric is simply, You made a mistake, you did something wrong You made another mistake, you did something right. The recent documentary, Goodnight Oppy, tells the story of the...
