I’m writing this with one hand on my growing belly and the other wrapped around a cup of tea—because that’s where I’m at right now: somewhere between being a mother, becoming one again, and trying to hold space for myself in the middle of it all.

Motherhood has cracked me open in ways I never expected. My daughter—now six—was the beginning of that unravelling and reweaving. She came into my world like light through a window, illuminating parts of me I didn’t even know were there. She made me softer. She made me fiercer. She made me tired in the bone-deep kind of way that only mothers know. But she also made me me.

And now, with another little soul growing inside me, I’m reminded again of just how much we stretch—not just our bodies, but our hearts, our identities, our expectations of who we thought we were. It's beautiful. It’s overwhelming. And some days, it’s really hard.

Motherhood, for me, has been full of mixed emotions. Deep joy and deep exhaustion. Gratitude and grief. A sense of purpose and, at times, a loss of self. So many of us are mothering without a clear template. Many of us are healing our relationships with our own mothers, or grieving the mother we never had. Some of us are longing to become mothers. Some are redefining what it means entirely.

And I truly believe this: we are all mothers.
We mother children.
We mother our friends, our families, our communities.
We mother our dreams.
We mother ourselves.
We tend, we hold, we create, we nurture. That is the essence of the feminine.

When we created ashaya, it was out of a desire to honour all of these seasons. Not just the outer ones, but the inner ones too—the invisible transitions, the quiet shifts, the tender thresholds. Because the journey of womanhood and motherhood isn’t linear, and it certainly isn’t always graceful. But it is powerful. And it is sacred.

If you’re reading this and navigating your own season—whether it’s early motherhood, perimenopause, fertility challenges, heartbreak, healing, or simply trying to remember who you are in the middle of it all—I want you to know: I see you. You are not alone. You are already mothering something beautiful.

This season of life for me is about softening. Surrendering. Relearning how to nourish myself while nourishing others. It’s the same energy we pour into ashaya—supportive, grounded, loving. I hope you feel that in every ritual, in every word.

With love,
Siobhan,
Co-Founder, ashaya