I'm coming to you today with a tender heart, and also with so much gratitude, hope, and a few beautiful things I want to share.

We are moving through the final days of a powerful eclipse season, culminating in this week's Full Moon lunar eclipse. Whether or not you follow astrology, perhaps you've felt it too; a sense of being stretched, squeezed, awakened, or asked to look more deeply at your life.

Endings. Beginnings. Realizations. Letting go. New possibilities.

I'm right there with you.

There are times when life — and the world around us — can feel tender, uncertain, or simply like a lot to hold. And in those times, I return again and again to what I know.

I take refuge in love. And I take refuge in my practice.

For me, that might look like yoga, prayer, meditation, mantra, time in nature, devotional practices, sacred sexuality and intimacy practices, or simply placing my hand on my heart and repeating my self-love affirmation: "I deeply and profoundly accept, respect, forgive, and love myself."

These practices don't make the difficult things disappear. They help me stay present enough to meet them with an open, courageous, and compassionate heart.

A tender season of remembrance

September 8 marks the anniversary of my son Cheyne's passing, and every year as this date approaches, I feel the tenderness of grief moving closer.

This year, rather than simply waiting for the anniversary to arrive, I chose to create a 30-day sadhana (practice) that I started on 8.8, devoted to Cheyne — a daily container of practice, prayer, remembrance, and love.

One of the things grief has taught me is that it doesn't simply disappear with time. It changes. We change. And somehow, we learn to make room for both the ache of what we have lost and the immense love that remains.

And this year, that love has also become service.

We did it! Oscar is in El Salvador 🏄🏽‍♂️❤️

I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated, shared, prayed, and helped support Oscar through our Soul on Fire Surf Scholarship Fund.

We did it. Oscar is now in El Salvador, representing Colombia at the World Junior Surfing Championships. He has what he needs to be there, competing alongside young surfers from around the world and living a dream that once seemed so far away.

Seeing him there, and knowing we played a part in it, makes me so proud and grateful for the community I have.

Soul on Fire Surf Scholarship Fund was created in Cheyne's memory, and watching that love move forward into the life of another young man — giving him an opportunity to follow his dreams — reminds me that our pain can sometimes become purpose, and our love can continue to move through the world in ways we never could have imagined.

Thank you for being part of that.

One last beautiful doorway 🌺

My December retreat in Nosara, Costa Rica — Awakening the Goddess Within — is essentially full. And yet, one final room has opened.

The women gathering for this retreat are coming from the United States, Costa Rica, Italy, and beyond, and what touches me most is that they are all part of my heart community — women who have practiced, studied, explored, and shared this path with me in different ways over the years.

There is already a beautiful thread connecting us — a shared longing to go deeper into yoga, Tantra, devotion, meditation, mantra, prayer, sacred sisterhood, embodiment, pleasure, and love.

So this doesn't feel like simply filling one more room. It feels like there is one final doorway open. The room can be yours privately, or it can be shared by two women.

If you have practiced with me before and something inside you has been whispering that you are meant to be there, perhaps this is your moment to listen. I'm holding the doorway open until August 31 — reach out to [email protected] to let me know you're interested, and we'll send you all the details.

Everything is connected

As I write this, I realize that everything I wanted to share today is connected. Practice. Grief. Love. Service. Sisterhood. New beginnings.

Life asks us to hold so much, sometimes all at once.

I'm in a stage of life where I don't know exactly what the next chapter will bring. But I do know what helps me meet it: returning to my practices, keeping my heart open, loving the people in front of me, serving where I can, and remembering that even in the most tender seasons, there is still beauty here.

Thank you for being part of this community, for reading these little love letters from my heart, and for walking alongside me through so many seasons of life.

I'm right here walking through it with you.

With all my love,

Monica ❤️