Returning Home, Returning to Ourselves.

This week, Ms. Asha boarded a plane to Kerala, India, to celebrate her brother’s wedding and to spend time with the people who shaped her. She sent us photos already, laughing beside her cousins, standing proudly with her brothers, cuddling her young nephews, and embracing her mother and sister-in-law. Each image is filled with joy and belonging.

Her trip arrives at the perfect moment: just before Thanksgiving, when so many of us will also be heading home, or creating home, in our own ways.

In Montessori, going home is more than a physical return. It is a return to one’s roots. To one’s culture. To one’s family. To the people and rhythms that nourish us, steady us, and remind us who we are.

Montessori often wrote about the prepared adult, the idea that children thrive when the adults around them are grounded, joyful, and emotionally nourished. Guides give so much of themselves each day. To teach with presence, they also need spaces where they feel held, supported, and restored.

Asha’s time in Kerala does exactly that.

Her trip is a reminder that adults, just like children, need connection and community. When Asha spends time with her cousins, when she laughs with her brothers, when she holds her nephews or sits with her mother, these moments refill the well from which she teaches.

When she returns, she will bring back more than stories.
She will bring back warmth, steadiness, and the quiet joy that comes from being deeply rooted in family and culture.

And this matters for the children.

Children sense when the adults around them are centered. They absorb calm. They respond to joy. They learn trust through the grounded presence of adults who feel supported in their own lives.

As we approach Thanksgiving, Asha’s journey reminds us of something universal:
We all grow stronger when we return to the people who make us feel like ourselves.
Whether “home” is a place, a person, or a set of traditions, going there restores us.

We are grateful for Asha, for her heritage, and for the way she shares pieces of her culture so generously with our children. And we are grateful for this moment that reminds our whole community:

Before we nurture others, we must allow ourselves to be nurtured.
Before we guide, we must feel grounded.
Before we teach connection, we must experience it ourselves.

Welcome home, Asha, and safe travels to everyone finding their way home next week.