MY JOURNAL
living beyond the page.
A Winter Nourishment List: Gentle Ways to Embrace the Season
I keep a list of what nourishes me through the winter season for days when I might forget.
How a Paper Calendar Can Transform Your Morning Routine
Using a simple Italian paper calendar has become a grounding ritual in my mornings. Each day, as I tear off yesterday’s page to reveal today, I’m reminded to stay present, to savor the moment, and to embrace the calm before the day unfolds. This small, mindful practice helps me slow down and focus on one day at a time
The Power of Journaling: Cultivating Creativity, Balance, and Calm Through Pen and Paper
Having a journaling practice is essential to my well-being. When I am feeling out of balance sitting down with pen and paper to sift through thoughts and feelings always restores me.
Whispers of Old Bones: Remembering Ancestors and Unearthing Their Stories
The wild mint blows in the breeze as I sit on the steps of an abandoned stone house at the end of a street where my great-grandparents lived.
Italian Porcini Mushrooms in the Fall
I’ve just come home with market fresh porcini mushrooms to prepare for dinner. I’m making tagliatelle ai funghi porcini, a favorite and easy seasonal dish to make.
Not Having a Desk to Write (and Writing Anyway)
I am a deskless writer...
Making a List of Simple Pleasures
A list of simple pleasures that, for me, make the ordinary extraordinary…
Being a Notebook Person
Do you love notebooks? I have a thing for notebooks. I am never without paper and pencil…
The Lure of La Serenissima
The most sensual of all cities I’ve travelled to, Venice
Feeling Comfortable in Your Clothes and in your Everyday Life
I’m wearing my husband’s old flannel shirt. The brushed cotton in deep olive-green and black squares is soft and loose on my body. I found it cleaning out the closet today… Maybe I’m just looking for the familiar...
Journaling: An end of the Month Practice
Looking back at a month helps me plan ahead for the next. It’s both a practical exercise - getting organized! - but it also counts as self-care.
Leaving A Summer Cottage
In this crumbling cottage, a summer house that welcomes us every year, that holds us during transitions.
Morning Ritual: Move, Read, Write
Three simple actions, that done daily, can nourish your body and mind.
The Wise Ways In Which We Try Again
It’s always an exploration. Unknown oceans take us to places unimaginable, when we let the current course-correct.
Autumn Equinox — Balance in A Day
Fall is the season of surrender. Change is in the air. Days are blustery and the light filters through windows at a golden slant that stretches toward the darker months ahead. This is a time to draw close, to pull out sweaters from their summer slumber and polish favorite boots till they are buttery soft.
Intoxicating Perfume
Fragrant flowers at midnight.
Petals and Pages and How Roses can Inspire Reading
A bed of roses raised on books.
A Sense of Place
Have you ever fallen in love with a house?
Coffee in Italy
Morning ritual and making time for yourself.