handful of wildflowers
cast iron pan, wood smoke
the road less traveled by
​
For as long as Marlaina 
can remember, her knee-jerk impulse has been
to create through every medium that called her:
writing, art, music, dance, photography, moving images, cooking, and fragrance.
Today, her everyday life as a professional writer, painter, and composer often intersects with what 12th-century abbess Hildegard Von Bingen called viriditas,
"the greening power" or divine, creative life force of nature. 
Coming from a long line of creative souls,
Marlaina was raised in a holistic-minded home where she was deeply
encouraged and supported both creatively and spiritually. 
​
professional life

Since 2016, Marlaina has been a regular national content
writer and journalist for Natural Awakenings magazine,
the leading evidence-based health and green living magazine in the States
(2.5 million monthly readership via hard copy regional editions and online).
Marlaina has several articles per month in the publication
and has had the privilege of interviewing
some of the most significant sources in the industry
including Mayo Clinic,
Dr. David Perlmutter, Dr. Gladys McGarey, celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito,
neuroscientist and global Transcendental Meditation leader Tony Nader,
yoga legend Rodney Yee, and inspiring New York Times bestselling authors
Thomas Moore and Sarah Ban Breathnach.
Due to editorial protocol, when there are more than 2 articles
in a monthly issue, she uses the pseudonyms Maya Whitman and Zak Logan. 
In addition to holding certifications in
clinical and energetic applications of therapeutic-grade essential oils,
therapeutic massage, energy modalities, and hospice volunteer work,
Marlaina's passionate independent study of the human nervous system
and the neuro-energetic effects of trauma greatly informs her work.

She is a multi-genre author of 15 titles 
including the reference book Multidimensional Aromatherapy,
the OBE memoir Naked Soul (Llewellyn Worldwide, 1998),
Spiritual Famine in the Age of Plenty, and
Goddess Consciousness. 

As a composer, under the name WillowWynd, Marlaina has released 21 albums 
in the genres of contemporary classical piano, world, and instrumental.
Her diverse work has been featured in
award-winning short films directed by Tara Gadomski,
small business promos, gallery art installations, meditation videos, and self-help courses.  
 
As a third-generation painter, she dedicates her brush to fine figurative art
and visionary art that celebrates who we are in the Big Picture.
​
real life

In 2016,
after 25 years of debilitating chronic illness with two brief remissions,
Marlaina experienced a life-altering, lasting physical and emotional healing 
that prompted a profound understanding
of deep mind-body connections.
She chooses a path of slower living and recently made the decision
to leave social media except for work necessity, preferring life off the virtual wheel.
For her, choosing the real world
also means opting out of smartphone obsession and AI mentality
to cultivate the tangible and the organic. 
After three decades of hosting immersive women's meditation circles,
co-facilitating sacred feminine retreats, and leading mindfulness events,
Marlaina has closed this chapter of her life.
She observes today's metaphysical community as vastly different from the one
in which she was raised, a shadow of its early visionaries and the original meaning
of the term new age and "Goddess".
She will always remain true to the deep mystic's path
but does not subscribe to, or identify with,
the current arena now putrefied with spiritual narcissism, 
self-proclaimed social media gurus,
 pseudo certifications, toxic positivity, 
get-rich-while-saving-the-planet multilevel marketing, 
and other profit and power-driven New Age ideologies.
 
Her greatest everyday joy is her medicinal pantry of 75+ herbs
and the seasonal beauty and medicine of nearby meadows and woodlands
where she gathers her own stock whenever possible.
Her newest unexpected blessing and passion is spending time
in the healing presence of horses
and experiencing their sometimes-astonishing intuitive
and emotional capacity.
She can be found walking and hiking regularly at
 wildlife sanctuaries year-round 
with her beloved husband,  Jos. C. Donato, 
 an avid outdoorsman and an author of historical fiction.

Marlaina's lifelong inspiration and mentor was her mother Winifred ,
a multitalented singer-songwriter, poet, mystic, and Renaissance woman
who independently studied nutrition and managed health food stores
in New York City in the 1950s. From this early foundation,
Marlaina continues to live by the premise
that the fusion of healing, art, and spirit is an immutable force.