Mary Marcdante 

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@marymarcdante

Mary Marcdante

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Happy Birthday Julia Child!

I'm Mary!

The Presence Path is about finding self compassion and walking your way home to yourself.  Living in your joy, creating and being true to your authentic self expression - is the key to create the fulfilling life you dream of.  Thank you for being here. I'm happy to share the journey with you.

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Bon Appetit and Happy 97th Birthday Julia Child! And thank you, Julie Powell, Nora Ephron, and Meryl Streep for keeping Julia’s spirit alive in the film Julie & Julia. It brought back a memory of one of my life highlights.

Several years ago I had the good fortune to meet Julia Child, who was 90 at the time. She was still doing PBS cooking specials, had written 12 cookbooks, and taught millions of people that cooking can be easy and fun. She came down from her home in Santa Barbara to promote her latest cookbook at a book signing at The Book Works, Flowerhill (a wonderful independent bookstore adjoining one of my favorite book-writing cafes, The Pannikin).

I stood in line with more than 300 people for two hours. When I finally reached the front of the line, I couldn’t believe how nervous and excited I was. My goodness, she was even larger than life in person. And very direct and clipped in her responses, which made me more nervous because after reading extensively about the challenges she’d faced in her life including breast cancer and the death of her husband, I’d been planning my question for days and began to wonder if she would answer it.

As I got to the table where she was sitting, she looked up at me and sounding slightly impatient, said in her iconic voice, “What are you smiling about?!”

Feeling uncharacteristically embarrassed, I said, “Getting to meet you, Ms. Child. Would you sign this book for a friend and may I ask you a question?”

She nodded yes and began to write, so I crouched down on my knees to meet her eye to eye and continued, “How do you stay so inspired and enthusiastic, especially in difficult times?”

Arms flying into the air and sounding slightly exasperated, she responded in her characteristic, slightly off-key trill, “Wellllll, I eat well, I’m passionate about life, and I love what I do! Now what else can I do for you?”

I offered my hand to shake hers and she gave me as hearty a handshake as someone 50 years younger. (Must have been from all that dough she kneaded over the years!) What a wonderful expression of enthusiasm and a confirmation that doing anything with enthusiasm, especially something you love, not only makes life more enjoyable but helps you get through challenging times.

Here is a short video clip recap of my experience with Julia from a speech I did at the Sharp Women’s Health Conference in San Diego. Bon Appetit!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjwv-lX9TtY]

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My intention as a trained Mindful Self-Compassion teacher and coach is to help you reconnect to your wise, loving, intuitive self, follow your creative calling, and experience and share your creative gifts with the world. 

I bring 30 years of experience as an international inspirational speaker specializing in communications and stress management and over a decade in Marketing Consultancy. I am the author of "My Mother, My Friend," and "Living with Enthusiasm" and a contributing author to five best-selling "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books and "A Woman's Way to Success in Business." I have been featured in numerous national publications and broadcasts and have spoken on more than 1500 stages around the world. 

I believe there is a path to create the life you want and achieve your goals and dreams - at any age, at any stage. It is my honor and joy to help women find their creative calling and put their dreams at the forefront of their lives.


My intention as a trained Mindful Self-Compassion teacher and coach is to help you reconnect to your wise, loving, intuitive self, follow your creative calling, and experience and share your creative gifts with the world. 

I bring 30 years of experience as an international inspirational speaker specializing in communications and stress management and over a decade in Marketing Consultancy. I am the author of "My Mother, My Friend," and "Living with Enthusiasm" and a contributing author to five best-selling "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books and "A Woman's Way to Success in Business."

I have been featured in numerous national publications and broadcasts and have spoken on more than 1500 stages around the world, sharing how to stay inspired, enthusiastic, and healthy in changing times.

I believe there is a path to create the life you want and achieve your goals and dreams - at any age, at any stage. It is my honor and joy to help women find their creative calling and put their dreams at the forefront of their lives.


I would love to help you bring your creative spirit to life.

Learn more

A Lifetime of Experience, Travels, Challenge & Change

Mary is Director of Communications for the Center for Mindful Self Compassion and is a MSC Trained Teacher, Coach, Meditation Guide and Retreat Leader based in San Diego, California. You can find Mary creating artful photography and leading walking meditation groups on the beaches of Torrey Pines Reserve.

Mary's career experience includes over a decade working as a marketing consultant with business, government, nonprofit, and community organizations to create and complete mission-driven collaborative projects and events, and a 30-year career traveling internationally as a communication and stress management speaker and author. 

Working with latest research on stress, positive psychology, and brain/mindset learning into practical and powerful lifestyle strategies, Mary inspires people to make conscious choices and take inspired action in the midst of challenge and change, believing that all dreams are possible.

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san diego based author, speaker, teacher, coach,
nature & travel lover

Hi, I'm Mary.
 Creative Coach,
Writer, Teacher,
Photographer.

written by mary marcdante

written by
mary marcdante

Living with Enthusiasm

Living with Enthusiasm is a powerful 21-Day Plan for turning your stress into success, funk into fun, and adversity into adventure. It's about going for the gusto.

WRITTEN BY MARY MARCDANTE

WRITTEN BY
MARY MARCDANTE

My Mother, My Friend

Every woman has things that she wants to talk about with her mother -- but can't. Big questions about health, aging and money, and even more personal issues about family secrets and Mom's relationship with Dad have made for extremely difficult conversations -- until now.

purchase the book  →

purchase the book  →