10/05/2026
My first Mother’s Day as Aurora’s mum.
I won’t pretend this year has been easy. Before she arrived, I had real fears around losing my time, my independence, the space I had for myself, the long mornings of stillness.
Those fears all came true, in their way.
For a while I thought it would be temporary and I would “go back” to my routines at some point. But actually the more she grew the more I realised there was no going back. If anything, things got “worse”.
I also started to realise that self-care doesn’t have to look the way it looked before. That presence can be practised in any moment, no matter how full or chaotic or unglamorous that moment looks. Five loads of laundry. Cooking, prepping, washing up. The beautiful, relentless busyness of a life with a small child.
This is the spiritual work too. Not despite the chaos - right inside of it.
What I am (very imperfectly) learning is to stay connected rather than constantly needing to reconnect. And to meet myself where I am, not where I think I should be.
Some days I get it right, but many I don’t. I get lost in the hurrying and the noise, and then I notice, and I come back. To the breath. To the present moment. To myself.
That noticing - and the returning - is the practice now.
Being Aurora’s mum has also shown me how strong I actually am. The most powerful personal development of my life has not come from a retreat or a programme or a book. It has come from this small person who needs me to be present in a way nothing else ever has.
To every woman reading this who is quietly wondering whether there is still space for herself inside a life that demands everything - you are not failing. You are being asked to find a different relationship with yourself.
One that lives inside the ordinary moments, if you are present enough to find it there.
With love, Rita 🤍