Meadows Renewal Experiences

We shared an intimate, engaging, and enriching experience together, exploring Mandorlas, playing Explore and Heighten, and learning about the anthropological wisdom behind rites of passage practiced by communities around the world for centuries ✨

Yesterday’s workshop felt a little different from our previous gatherings. We embraced the sunshine and came together in a quiet spot in the park, letting nature inspire and deepen the experience. We also explored new techniques from the Circle of Trust and used our own hand-created Mandorlas as pieces of inspiration and reflection throughout the session.

Thank you everyone for your presence and unique contributions! 🫶

The venue for our retreat in 10-12 September is a tranquil welcoming place. So excited to go there again!

If you feel called to explore the potential of your "own precious life", as poet Mary Oliver puts it, be welcome to join us!

The link for finding out more or booking a free call with Maria is in the comment.

😌

Already preparing the retreat from 10th-12th of September 2026, with my mentor Penny Williamson - a true joy 🥰

Today we had another call that didn´t feel like work but like a part of the retreat itself.

This is going to be the first time we get to have Penny in Portugal, and hopefully not the last.

To bring the Circle of Trust work in Portugal is a mission dear to my heart and I hope that many of us will get to feel the regeneration that this approach brings during our "Play and Contemplation - cultivating accessible intuition for uncertain times" in September.

You are welcome to join us! You can find out more and sign up at the link in bio.

Love,
Maria

Yesterday we had an in-depth session of playing and reflecting on Giving & Taking as paths of inhabiting our place in "the family of things" as poet Mary Oliver shares.

We enjoyed Spolin improvisation games, anthropological insights from Michael Meade and reflected in circles of trust.

We've been enriched by diverse insights from cultures in Egypt🇪🇬, Pakistan🇵🇰, Armenia/Turkey🇦🇲/🇹🇷, Portugal🇵🇹 and Romania 🇷🇴 as much as by deeply moving personal histories.

I arrived home and had to sit watching over the window for a while, letting the moments settle. 😌
Thank you everyone for the gift of your full presence.
Maria

"When one door closes, the rest of the wirld opens up."
Parker J. Palmer

Signups at the link jn bio

A lovely atmosphere and group today at Casa de Juventude de Amarante where our Meadows facilitators, Maria and João brought together Spolin Improvisation theatre and circles or trust to cultivate the art of cultural sensitivity.

This youth exchange is done with Refugees Welcome Portugal and brings together youth from Caech Republic, Lithuania and Afghanistan.

We will be together until Friday diving into the art of mirroring, and the art of asking questions.

Sometimes we like to talk about weather and politics, some other times we want to play and contemplate about the soul's journey in this earthly life.

Yesterday we did the latter with a strong and focused group. We:

🙌 played "Part of a whole" and "Gibberish/English" games from Viola Spolin
💡discovered a new inisight from anthropology - the two agreements of the soul (the first one coming more often then not in complete gibberish 😃)
✍️ reflected on our own lives in trustworthy circles inspired by the poem "Wild geese" of Mary Oliver

Thank you everyone for your full presence!

Save the dates:
- next workshop - 18th of April
- retreat "Play & Contemplation - cultivating accesible intuition for uncertain times" - 10-12 Sept 2026.

♥️,
Maria

In february´s workshop, we had a great time together, full of wisdom and laughter. Join us for the march one, on Saturday!

We will continue our journey into navigating practices that support us finding more creative possibilities when dealing with uncertainty.

We will connect with the energy of spring, seeds, and the inner energy that wants to push through thr darkness and come into full vitality.

As usual, we will play, listen to ourselves and each other and cultivate confidence from inside out.

We'll also have the chance to get a teaser for our retreat "Play & Contemplation" from September (see it in bio).

Signups in the first comment.

Hope to see you there,
Maria ❤️

What are the chances for a yellow house to have a garden with yellow flowers? Yet that's what I've seen yesterday. Ordinary things can sometimes be extraordinary.

At the beginning of this year some of us managed to find these moments of personal reflection, and some of us have yet to explore the fertility of the unknown in 2026.

What will we do?

We gather this Friday, 30th, in a space where we can express ourselves, get creative, connect and listen to each other: the first 2026 workshop on the theme of "Possibility in times of uncertainty".

I'll start us off with ideas from ancient cultures on harvesting the potential hidden in the unknown, we continue by connecting to the body through facilitated creative play, and we end by making the quiet space for personal contemplation where we'll receive guiding prompts for reflection.

Feel welcome to join us.
Link in bio

Maria 💛