a new day

Join me for a morning cup of coffee as we awaken to a new dawn.

The light of a new day.

A blank page set before me.

Heart-felt words written in a book.

The warmth of a freshly brewed cup of coffee.

As I make my way into a new day I use my morning rhythm to center me.

To slow me down.

To tune me in.

My cup of coffee is my direct link to two things.

My spiritual reading and my writing.

As soon as the coffee pot is on and I hear the stirrings of the water begin to heat up, I sit down with my book and start reading.

The books I choose to read in the morning are reminders.

They remind me of who I am. The true me. The Divine me.

The words awaken my soul like the coffee awakens my body.

The coffee pot lets me know it's ready so I make my way to the stove and slowly make myself a cup.

I sit back down and open up my journal or laptop. My writing belongs in both.

I write to reflect. To process. To understand.

Sometimes I scribble words that resonate with my soul and hold so much meaning.

Other times I write pages and pages of words that belong to something bigger.

And other times I play around with words on my website allowing my creative juices to flow.

I have created this space.

We create space by letting go of the things that no longer serve us.

I let go of many things that cluttered this time and space in my life.

As I let go of the guilt of allowing my children to make their own breakfasts and school lunches, I created space for my soul.

As I let go of the running around making sure everybody had everything they needed for a successful day, I created space for my own successful day - centered in the knowing of who I am.

As I let go of the need to drive my kids to school when they were able to take the bus I created space for the two things that were the most important things to me - reading as remembering who I truly am and writing to process the life I am living.

This is me.

This is it my heart and soul being honored every morning.

And once I am done honoring my soul, my self, I am ready to honor everyone else.

And that is the best gift I can give this world.

I'm curious to know what you're two most important things are?

What are the two things that honor your soul that you can start to create space for?

With much love,

Maria

how do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time!

I love big ideas.

Big ideas that encompass so much in one tiny word/words.

Big ideas like yoga and SoulCollage®️.

There are so many beautiful and inspiring notions within these ideas that I find my freedom, excitement, versatility and fun - one of my soul intentions- all encompassed into one beautifully packaged practice.

That is what An Intuitive Living Practice is - a BIG IDEA.

Like yoga and SoulCollage®️, there are so many pieces, each one complete and whole on its own but when combined and integrated with the other aspects, creates this dynamic, beautiful living invitation.

Taking a big idea and cutting it up into small digestible bite-sized pieces has been really challenging for me.

I have started and stopped this website a million times.

Ok. That's an exaggeration. But you know what I mean.

Each time I stopped and deleted my website, yes, deleted, I would find myself missing it.

My soul kept calling me to it. Whispering "to come, sit and write."

So here I am. Again.

I am creating space, showing up to this space and watching what unfolds.

I will use An Intuitive Living Practice to listen to the parts of myself that want to be seen and heard, and with hand over heart, proceed with love, compassion and curiosity.

I will remember that like yoga and SoulCollage®️, this BIG IDEA, will need to be cut up into small bite-sized pieces for both you and me to digest and integrate.

My only hope is that you enjoy every morsel, allow yourself to digest and integrate the information and give yourself permission to take what you want and leave the rest.

I will be doing the same.

Bon Apetite,

Maria

falling in love with Reggio

Discovering the Reggio Approach to learning unlocked my heart and soul's purpose. It is in this space that I wish to share with you everything that I've learned through my education and my experience.

When I was getting my degree in elementary education, I fell in love with whole language.

Whole language was this idea that children were born with the innate ability to learn language, not just speaking it but reading and writing it. All we needed to do was immerse them in language and celebrate their small milestones along the way just as we would when our children learned to talk.

This idea of a child's innate ability was the red thread that guided my further studies.

I believed in children.

I believed in their innate desire to learn.

I believed that they were capable of doing 'hard' things.

When I had my own children I decided to go for my Montessori certification.

Maria Montessori's books were unlike anything I had ever read before about children.

Her perspective. Her beliefs. Her view of the child.

It was oh-so beautiful.

I remember devouring her words. Underlining all the sentences hoping they would somehow stick in my memory forever.

My mind was blown and new questions and desires arose within me.

I wanted to know more.

I dabbled in Waldorf Education and loved reading blogs about rhythms and the world of Waldorf.

And then I discovered the Reggio Approach.

That was it for me.

Everything I read and learned about Reggio resonated with every ounce of my being.

I loved the loose parts. The project work. The inquiry. The invitations. The aesthetic. The simplicity.

I loved it so much that when my youngest daughter was three years old I opened up a Reggio Inspired Play School for ages 3-6. Everything I share with you here is a direct experience of that time in my life.

The red thread that weaved itself in and out of my education and experience was this belief in children.

It started out with seeing children as readers and writers to learning all about Maria Montessori and her profound view of the child to dabbling in Waldorf philosophy to falling in love with the Reggio Approach - which encompassed them all.

I can't wait to share with you everything that I've learned.

I absolutely love it and I hope you will too.

With Much Love,

Maria