Introducing The Great Mother

My husband says this is the most un-like me thing I've ever done

One of the scariest things about becoming a parent for the first time are all of the unknowns. Especially when you’re in the throes of the newborn phase, constantly wondering why your baby is crying, trying to learn the difference of whether they are hungry or gassy or secretly googling does my baby have colic?! – ‘the days are long’ doesn’t even begin to describe those first few weeks with a new baby.

In those earliest weeks, the idea of doing anything for myself ever again – and I’m talking about something luxurious, like having the time to sit down and write – felt impossible.

But alas! The other thing you learn very quickly in the newborn phase is that everything is constantly changing (same lesson I learned at a 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat! our greatest teachers = babies and silence 🙏), and before you know it, things changed.

I remember the moment so clearly, as if a halo of light shone upon us in my living room, my sleeping baby tucked into her blush shibori Dock-A-Tot beside me on the sofa, when I opened up my laptop for the first time. Never before has a blank Google doc excited me so.

Oh my God, I thought. Is this really happening? Maybe I didn’t have more than 20 minutes or so to write, certainly nothing of any substance or merit but that didn’t matter; the weight of the moment was in the realization that getting back to creating – getting back to myself – was now a possibility.

Of course most days I feel like I have no energy to do anything outside of the full-time job that has been triple-feeding 🥴, let alone anything mentally stimulating. But once I did start writing a bit, even if it was just scribble-typing in the Notes app one-handed with Violet attached to my breast, I realized that on those days, I felt better. More whole, more like… me. Other days I lost myself (ed. note: still lose myself) completely watching some very embarrassing television, which we will have to talk about another day, soon! And that was fine, too.

This is about where I decided to start writing this newsletter: as a way to commit to my creative practice, to maintain my sense of self. As a mother to Violet, but also outside of that. Because the essence of what the The Great Mother means to me is remaining whole, staying close to Source, and that means being both incredibly present to motherhood while also living a life that is full of things I enjoy outside of my baby.

The Great Mother is not literally about being a “great mother” but instead represents the archetype and universal symbol of femininity, birth, fertility, and creation. You can think of it as Mother Nature herself, or the ability to create, nurture, and nourish that we all share – whether you are man or woman or any other gender that you choose to identify with, the mother of a tiny human or a business or any other countless creation under the sun. This newsletter offers a way for me to stay connected to this innate and boundless power, to remember; maybe it can be for you, too.

Also! In case you’re new to Substack, I’m writing this here because I'm v into subscribing to and reading Substack newsletters myself these days. If you’re new to Substack, you should definitely explore the platform for other writers (and let me know if you have any favorites! maybe an idea for a future thread 💡) you might enjoy, because these are about the only emails that I actually look forward to, and often the only long-form content I read these days. For me writing (and reading) on Substack feels like the OG blogging days from a million years ago (aging myself, I know!), when people wrote, like, their diaries online. Writing in this way feels less precious, less formal, and more honest, which is just what I need right now.

Which brings me to the comment from my husband in the byline of this post. Yesterday at breakfast when I showed this to him for the first time, his words: This is the most un-like you thing you’ve ever done, but in the best way. I love it. What he meant was, he liked the fluidity of it, the casual nature, and felt this was the perfect platform to share a different part of myself than I have in the past.

The Weekly Issue

Each week on Sunday I will publish a newsletter sharing my motherhood journey. While some issues will be available publicly, you’ll need a paid subscription ($5/mo) for access to all of them.

What you can expect:

• Stories from my life as a mama

• How I’m navigating my creative practices and process (from writing to cooking to painting – will it ever happen again? le sigh – to home design/decor)

• Recipes (because I myself could use some super-quick ones that actually make me excited to get in the kitchen and cook these days, HBU?)

• Resources/information/inspiration I come across that makes my life easier or more enjoyable

Join the Community

Paid subscribers will also be able to comment on all newsletters to be a part of the conversation and share your own experiences, as well as participate in open threads that I hope many more of us will find helpful.

Because another reason I’m writing this newsletter is to build community amongst *great mothers* of all kinds.

Thank you for being here. 🪴

Lots of love,

Sarah Ashley

P.S. If you know a mama who would enjoy this, you can click the button below to gift them a subscription.