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Persephone's Myth
Dear Community, My last newsletter received a flurry of responses and I am so thrilled that the conversation was sparked! Susan said: “HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! What kind of "drunk" is he actually referring to? Fall over sloppy drunk or just a female empowerment buzz which as we all know, is the "gateway to the truth telling" for most women. I myself can't drink any longer, however the "mild buzz" was always the best! It unleashes a side to most women that makes them lovable and
Corina F
3 days ago7 min read


Throwing Patriarchy-Shaped Tomatoes Everywhere
Dear Community, It feels like it’s been months since I wrote the last newsletter, approximately 7 days ago. This week's issue is coming out a bit earlier, because tomorrow morning I will be traveling to the mountains of Transylvania and I don't want to carry my laptop. Time has a way of expanding here in Romania, possibly because I’m on vacation and in no particular rush, but also because everything is so close. Most places take ten minutes to reach, and much of the getti
Corina F
Sep 135 min read


Why We Should Never Use the Word “provider” When We Refer to Physicians and The Healing Power of Naps
Dear Community, I have literally landed in Romania approximately 1 hour ago and am currently thoroughly enjoying the midafternoon light in my mother’s home in Sibiu, Transylvania. Travels were uneventful, and I am including some pictures: one from my stop in Vienna and one of my mother’s kitchen. I am thinking about you waking up and drinking your coffee as you are reading this. Today, I would like to discuss the very shady origins of the word “provider” as it relates t
Corina F
Sep 79 min read


Zielschmerz and other obscure sorrows
Dear community, It is always so interesting to receive your comments to my newsletter. I welcome all your thoughts and hope to receive more of them. Special shoutout to Emma D., for entering the conversation and responding in writing! No pressure, by the way, but please keep in mind that when something is being stirred inside of you by the newsletter, I would love to hear about it. One of the great loves of my life is words. So when I found the Dictionary of Obscure So
Corina F
Aug 319 min read
The Ancient War on the Human Body
Dear Community, I woke from a nightmare with the words “Weeping Woman” in my mind. Strangely, in the dream, “Weeping Woman” was the name of a compensation package(!). I searched for it after waking. No such compensation package exists. But The Weeping Woman is the title of a famous 1937 painting by Pablo Picasso. And La Llorona—“The Weeping Woman”—is also the title of one of my favorite songs. I am listening to it on repeat as I write this, and I invite you to listen with me.
Corina F
Aug 245 min read


Near-Death by Yellowjackets and Expanded Consciousness
Dear Community, A day before I returned from Germany, my husband almost died. He went into the backyard to take out the compost. One of the bins had been knocked over during a windstorm and he attempted to straighten it. Unfortunately, the compost bin had been claimed by a large and extremely territorial family of yellowjackets (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowjacket) They attacked him. He was stung approximately ten times, all over his body. At first, he attempted to man
Corina F
Aug 1713 min read
To Slurp Or Not To Slurp
Dear Community, I wrote this piece several years ago and I always loved it, but for some reason, I never published it. It feels especially relevant now. We judge one another, we rank people, we take our own customs, beliefs, and ways of seeing the world and mistake them for universal truth. Then we create stories about those who live differently—and forget that they are stories. I feel that this is the way distance becomes hierarchy, hierarchy becomes contempt, and cont
Corina F
Aug 33 min read
Being Macho is Overrated
Dear Community, In the last newsletter, I intended to publish some of the answers I received to "My Neighbor, The Spy", but there was a glitch in the editing software and I ended up publishing only the pictures that Stacey B. sent. So here are some of the answers I received from you: Stacey B. said: "My favorite sitting spot is on my pool deck after a swim, looking into my yard. That’s where my butterfly garden is and the bluebird houses. I also love watching the bees
Corina F
Jul 277 min read
My Neighbor, "The Spy"
Dear Community, It is a beautiful summer morning. There’s the familiar hum of the busy street in the background. In the trees nearby, a bunch of Northern Cardinals have a lot to say to each other (or to me? or the ethers?). I can hear the chickadees, too, and the Carolina Wrens. And here’s the melancholy cooing that might belong to the Mourning Dove, or to one of the three owls that populate the little forest behind our backyard. A squirrel just lost her footing and is no
Corina F
Jul 133 min read
Aquarium Sleepover Trip Report
Dear Community, Today's newsletter is an Aquarium Sleepover Trip Report Who and why I wanted to celebrate the end of our 30-Day Reset. What a great success that was, by the way! Will most likely do it again. 5 women said yes. One almost chickened out of the trip (in her own words). Because who has aquarium sleepovers other than 10 year-olds? And why would anyone even consider an aquarium sleepover? Because on paper, it sounds incredible. Wouldn't YOU want to share
Corina F
Jun 2910 min read
What Is On Your Pleasure List?
Dear Community, This morning, during the 30-Day Reset, inspired by my friend Alia, we made a list of the things we love (bonus points were earned if the things on the list were free). I was so excited by the shares in our group and by the things that I, myself have uncovered, that I have decided to make today’s newsletter about this list! Would love to hear from you, your list of things that you love and dream of. Here’s my list: Listening to the first three minutes
Corina F
Jun 223 min read


Alive Women Are Selfish
Dear Community, My family was away this weekend, and for the first time in fifteen years, I had the house entirely to myself for two full days. I felt excited and curious about what might unfold, and a little scared, too. Sleeping alone in an empty house has never been easy for me. Saturday morning, after a walk and a very slow breakfast, I found myself in a place of confusion. (I am not even sure why I eat so quickly most of the time. I suspect it is a habit I developed when
Corina F
Jun 154 min read


Our Smart Phones Are Making Us Dumber
Dear Community, Did you know that having your smart phone in the same room as yourself will lower your cognitive capacity? Adrian F. Ward et al. (2017), "Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One's Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity." This is the famous study that looks at how the MERE PRESENCE of one's cell phone on your desk, or in the room affects working memory and fluid intelligence (defined as one's ability to think, reason, solve new problems, and make
Corina F
Jun 85 min read
What Is The Soul?
Dear Community, As I have been diving head first into what I call my soul's work, a few legit questions are coming up. What is the soul? Does everyone have a soul? Do souls talk to each other? What constitutes souls's work? How do you know it is your soul's work vs. inflation of the ego? What is inflation of the ego? These questions are not abstract for me, they're coming up because I'm in the middle of something, building what I can only call my soul's work- and I keep r
Corina F
Jun 13 min read
Marriage, Labor, Desire and The Right to Leave
Dear Community, Tomorrow is the last day of the 21-Day Reset. What an amazing experience! I loved every moment of it and it seems like the participants, did, too. On June 2nd I am opening a slightly longer and bigger container of transformation, and that is a 30-Day Reset. If you are a woman and you feel stuck, confused, phone-dependent, unclear as to what your role in the world is, scared, please join us. The community is supportive and kind, the morning practices give rh
Corina F
May 2515 min read
Courage is a Practice, Trust is a Skill
Dear Community, My interview with VoyageBaltimore (the obscurest of the most obscure online publications) was published. Nevertheless, I am proud, because they had an interest and I got to tell my story one more time. Here's the link: https://voyagebaltimore.com/interview/inspiring-conversations-with-corina-fratila-of-ideal-endocrinology And now that I got that out of the way, here's this week's newsletter! Looking back at 54 years of life, well spent or completely wast
Corina F
May 183 min read


Depression: The Story We're Told Is Marketing
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just named the pharmaceutical dependency crisis from the highest podium in American health. What he didn't say: the chemical imbalance theory has already been debunked. AUBREY MARCUS MAY 11 On May 4th, 2026, the Secretary of Health and Human Services walked to a podium at the Make America Healthy Again Institute and named a truth that has been buried under fifty years of marketing copy. Kennedy laid out the numbers without flinching. Sixteen percent of A
Corina F
May 1113 min read


The Prostitute
Dear Community, I was in a women’s circle this weekend, and at the beginning of the gathering one of the women drew the “Prostitute” archetype card from Caroline Myss’s Archetypes deck. She didn’t seem thrilled about it, but I felt an immediate resonance with the card. The timing was strange. The night before, I had been thinking about how I had never seen the Prostitute archetype represented in any oracle decks, and privately judging the creators' community for avoiding
Corina F
May 113 min read
Sharing is Caring. Or is it?
Dear community, I just returned from a brief trip to the Hudson Valley in New York State, Woodstock, to be more precise. I went to meet with a group of women led by Dr. Catherine Svehla https://mythicmojo.com and we went on a "Psyche’s Quest". We had three days of discussing the story of Psyche and Eros- if you are not familiar with this Greek myth, I think it is a very good idea to look into it. Here’s the text from Project Gutenberg (as told by Apuleius, in George Carpen
Corina F
Apr 275 min read
The Currency of Compliments
Dear community, Here's the Cambridge Dictionary definition of a compliment: "A remark that expresses approval, admiration, or respect." Clean and simple, and yet — for most of my life, receiving one felt anything but clean. I grew up around people who gave compliments generously, almost artistically: "You look so good." "Your sweater is beautiful." And yet, something in my body would tighten every time. Because I could feel — even as a child — that underneath the words
Corina F
Apr 204 min read
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