Why subscribe?

I have been gathering people in beautiful places for a long time now.

Long enough to know that what we are really gathering is not just in the room. It is presence and memory. Courage. The quieter self we almost lost along the way.

I am the founder of Vita Bella Retreats, and for more than a decade Italy has been my creative home and living classroom. In the Renaissance glow of Florence, in the countryside of Tuscany, in sun-bleached southern villages, I host writing, art, yoga, and reflective retreats for people who are ready to slow down and listen to their own lives. Dozens of retreats and hundreds and hundreds of people have attended and this is almost unreal to me. Except wait not really it’s been an incredible amount of energy output.

For 15 plus years I was a full time yoga teacher and studio owner in Minneapolis. When I say full time I mean I literally taught thousands of classes in 15 years. Teaching and my own practice taught me to pay attention to my inner world and not judge people. Hosting taught me to hold space. Life taught me everything else, of course.

I write. Not the kind chasing headlines, but the kind who notices the small turnings of the heart. I write about travel as a practice, about leadership and aging, about beauty and disappointment, about the tender discipline of staying open when the world asks us to close. I doodle, I journal, I blog, I substack and I’m always writing in notebooks, journals, art pages, scraps of paper and often times when traveling napkins.

This format is where it all flows into one.

Italy, yes, the meals, streets, art-filled corridors, loving people, all the moments that make me incredibly grateful. But also the inner landscape. What it means to build something from nothing. What it means to let go. What it means to keep going. What it means to say yes when you have no clear plan but tons of devotion.

Each month I share reflections from retreat life, from the road, from my own learning curve as a woman, a creative, a business owner, a human being still becoming. There are books and meals and places and practices. Things to read. Things to make. Things to sit with.

Why subscribe?

The free letters are glimpses of my thoughts, everyday life, things I’m reflecting on, Italy, reflections, and how I’m staying in the present moment.

You don’t have to step into the paid circle to come closer to the fire. I mostly do unpaid stuff.

I always send personal essays, behind-the-scenes truths of retreat life and leadership, early invitations to small and limited offerings, and seasonal guides for creative and personal renewal. Sometimes audio. Sometimes something unexpected.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for showing up and reading these writings and the wider body of work it grows from. It allows me to keep tending this space with care, and to continue sharing generously beyond it.

Mostly, this is a place for people who want to live awake. Who want to hear truth mixed with magic. Who are learning to lead their lives with more honesty, more presence, and more heart.

I’m glad we found each other here.

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