Mother Maker Cauldron 03

A magic round up of creatives & writers

Hello beautiful people!

Welcome to a little “Mother Maker Cauldron” where I get to celebrate creatives that move and inspire me in some way. This is a *monthly mixing bowl that arrives in your inbox for free on a Sunday.

Keep reading if you want to

• be connected to some beautiful creations made by incredible mothers with a celebratory shout out to a few of them

• See who I’ve been reading on substack and loving!

• What’s coming up that I’m excited by

  If this email appears too long in your email browser, you can click through to the app and continue reading easily x

My current writing set up, with a sleeping Ren, while Tully & Rafi are at the local markets.

This week has felt big. Raf, Ren and I all coming down with a mild cold, but a mild cold in a newborn means being up all night with the electric snot sucker so that he can breathe and feed. Plus 5 am wake ups to steam our faces in the shower before going back to bed to attempt another hour of sleep.

That, amongst some important social events this week simply meant I was was busier than intended, and therefore a lot more rundown than I had anticipated.

Postpartum is no joke, and even though I’m 6ish (about, I’m not quite sure haha) weeks into a new life, My body is still tired, and I hit my social capacity much much earlier than usual.

Which Is likely why I find myself craving to be here, On substack…. hidden in my little writing nook. It’s quiet here.

Many of you would already know, but for those of you new here - I have a passion for mothers who create and make.

those raising children and raising big visions, 

birthing babies and birthing businesses. 

Those dancing between mother mystic & mother maker. 

Moving with the surges of creative living, the poetry of their own lives. 

Mother maker is For 

the Artists, 

Poets, 

Writers, 

Movers & Shakers 

for the Influencers, 

Speakers, 

Coachers, 

Energy workers, 

Community creators 

& Home makers, 

For the designers 

Photographers, 

for the Entrepreneurs, 

and business owners, 

for those who create and make, intuitively, 

not as something they do, but because it's who they are, alongside motherhood.

Mother Maker Cauldron

I’d like to do things slightly differently today. Normally I share 2 creatives I’m really inspired by at the moment, and then I share some reads.

Today I’d like to share

• Writers I’ve Read

• Creative’s I’m Celebrating

• Some things I’m personally celebrating & excited by (including claiming a big part of my vision here/ and off substack in my 3D World)

• Things you want to know about (Some publish changes here and an event you might want to attend!)

WRITERS I’VE READ (and enjoyed)

"I write for myself, my 5 best friends, and 9 million others” and further reflections on the question of audience By

Junot Díaz

“I'm rich!” And how the world tries to rob us By

Jak Major

“A seasonal attunement for your dreams and visions” an invitation into self led ritual by

Lauren Barber

“On the life that wants to live in you” and why we turn away from it, part 1 By

Laura McKowen

"Help! I held it in and now I'm creatively constipated" and creativity in a world that tells you you’re not good enough (and there’s no time) by

Full of Yourself with Erica Perry

"Sorry I'm late - I fell in love too young" by

Jess Pan

This poem by

Tess Guinery

"Fathers Carrying Flowers" an honorarium from the heart of a mother.

This read by

Alex Dobrenko`

"A day in the life of a writer who is also a dad and husband etc" A much too detailed diary of my day trying to write while being a dad.

and also "Inviting Space" by

Claudia Wilde

which is all about spaciousness and creating more room in our bodies and lives for the feeling of space.

CREATIVES I’M CELEBRATING

I’m a big believer in celebration over competition (or comparison) . For so many reasons, though that honestly is a big post all for itself.

The core of it though - Is it feels good to be inspired by others and to celebrate them.

I also know over the years I’ve gathered a community based on trust, and I feel honoured in many ways to be able to connect creatives to each other. It’s what I genuinely love to do.

Up first is

Tess Guinery

for officially becoming a substack bestseller this week.

A badge in disguise of a nod towards all the intentional effort she has put into this space, her incredibly well thought out posts and art curation for substack. Tess is very much a creative offline, though thanks to the online world, so many more of us are able to hold her work. She inspires me as she stays in integrity with herself and her curiosities while dancing between her creativity, motherhood, community and marriage. If any of you have read her poetry books, you know how her words are medicine. I love that this year has been one of the space between words for Tess, this space here to hold her creatively… and it’s been worth it.

Next is my friend Montana Lower, who is the founder of BLUEM.

Bluem is her “of the earth” skincare company, and Monny is an incredibly creative woman in the ways she lives, works, plays, mothers and loves. She’s an ex environmental engineer who became an activist and artist, then guiding her to start Bluem. (Don’t worry, I’ll have her on the "Sundays are for Mothers" interview series soon so you can witness the full unfolding. Her vision is to rewild the beauty industry while connecting people to themselves and the earth. Her products have been healing skin across the world. Her whole ethos is simplicity, and that nature offers exactly what we need. From the beginning Bluem has been working towards becoming B Corp Certified and after 3 years they just made this huge achievement!

B Corp Certified means Bluem has joined a global community of businesses elevating environmental and social impact.

The only way to achieve this is through accountability, transparency, and the wellbeing of all, from where the ingredients are sourced, all those working, the packaging, all the way through to everyone who is apart of the Bluem community.

It’s a meaningful and massive achievement to Monny & her team, while moving through some deep healing as. a mother and woman.

SOME THINGS I’M CELEBRATING

Of course, celebrating myself has been conditioned out of me - like many of us, and over the last 7 or so years it’s been a practise I’ve very intentionally been bringing back into my life.

So, On celebrating….

My substack publication

Kat River

has been featured as number 19 out of hundreds on the “leaderboard” in the Art category.

I know I know.. “Leaderboards” “Ranks” all feels a bit gross, but as much as I prefer a more matriarchal approach to my creative endeavours, I also can appreciate this as a form of recognition for hours and hours of time and energy put into this space here and really, intentionally, expanding how I show up on substack. I’ve gone from essentially “Blogging my musings” to curating a space to hold community, educate, and dissolve some of the loneliness, or messiness, or confusion that *can* come from being a mother maker. I want this to be a holding place for inspiration and understanding, a place that indulges in a culture of celebrating and supporting each other, and circulating resources within a beautiful co-created ecosystem.

So though a leaderboard doesn’t feel like a huge deal, it ALSO had me giddy with excitement because I’ve been in my lane and figuring it all out here. I had a passing thought a few months ago “Oh it would be cool to be on the explore page because then more people could find my work” (This was before I understood how notes could be great for community connection) - and I’m honestly unsure of how my name even got on it - but it does feel good to be recognised in a simple way like this. (Alongside so many of you restacking my work on the app, and mentioning me in comments and recommendations. It honestly does not go unnoticed and I’m sitting in a lot of appreciation for you all so Thank you)

What I’m excited by right now …

Is becoming clear on my personal vision (Outside of mothering and marriage and local community etc).

My creative vision so to speak.

I have an Essay coming out on Wednesday regarding the ways I normally connect and am guided by my creativity. It’s titled “$100,000 intuitive hits” so keep an eye out - it’s a goodie.

But lately this vision has come in and taken up most of my brain/heartspace.
I’m really excited by the idea of creating a cosy event and community space/hub. A little one, but a beautiful one. Initially I dreamt of it being for the mother makers - though as time goes on I feel more pulled to it being for the FAMILIES. The mothers, fathers, parents, and children.

Cosy nooks and floor cushions, plants, low lighting, “coworking” tables, an elixir bar filled with teas and tonics, coffee and uninterrupted conversations by day, nooks to write, read, work, paint (because of course It would include a sweet crache for the kids), and by night, spoken word poetry nights, live music, and creative workshops… and movie nights and craft tables for the littles.

The reason why this is exciting for me - is because when I have a vision for my income, a purpose for it, it always meets me where i’m at. It will arrive and make dreams happen. Whether it’s through self funding (As everything I’ve created in my life has been so far) OR through investments/ angel donators etc, OR thorough resource collaboration as in coming together to help create things together)

So to know that part of the reason I am focused on “building” substack (Growing, dancing with, moving and expanding…. ah aren’t the fluffy words so much nicer on the nervous system) is YES, to create a community resource for the mother makers worldwide and have a space to grow and share as a writer and creative myself… AND it’s ALSO to grow an income that can help self fund this really big, hot on the heart project of a creative family space that is both beautiful and functional. Basically, the coolest club in town. I want us to walk in there, immediately feel HOME and have a creative surge take our hand, pour us a cuppa, sit us down and we can make space for it. Supporting the Mother makers and those they love in the 3D. Where they don’t have to seperate themselves from their children in order to take an hour to write, or to gather with other creatives, etc.

Which also leads to my other exciting moment and personal goal of booking myself in for a 1:1 session with

Writers at Work with Sarah Fay

to essentially audit my space here and guide me into the next stage of expansion on substack - as a step towards the bigger picture.

SOME THINGS YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT

An online event I’d LOVE you to know about from a wonderful mother maker I know and love (and have known and loved 9 years now… as you can imagine, many lifetimes within this one together),

Full of Yourself with Erica Perry

She’s published her own book, spent years writing a successful blog, pivoted to erotic, confronting, thought provoking poetry, then into events, retreats, art prints, guest teaching on courses, copywriting, website creating, and has circled back into writing her 2nd, 3rd, and 4th book with a book deal in Australia.

She’s just crafted a 4 hour online ceremony/event/ workshop of sorts to hold space for and guide women into writing their birth story. This is something I believe to be INCREDIBLY important no matter if you are processing mixed emotions, celebrating or just slowly working through honouring this sacred rite of passage.

Writing is healing, and even writing Ren’s birth story myself last month, had me bawling my eyes out, in both grief and gratitude for my experience.

During the event she’ll use a mix of visualisations, guided meditations, and creative therapy to guide you through “felt storytelling” and poetry, with writing and rewriting from different lens’s to process and come into a place of reverence and appreciation for yourself within your birth story…and also turning your story into a beautiful gift of a bedtime story for your child.

I’ve been lucky enough to be guided and held space for many times by Erica, and when she drops in, she meets you, heart to heart - and it’s beautiful.

There are only 10 spaces in this workshop, and some are filled already, which is why I wanted to come here and share with you now - as I know SO many of you would not only resonate, but love to be involved and finally create the space to write the story you’ve been thinking about writing.

The workshop is also incredible value for the experience so if you’re interested… I’d run, not walk to check out the link here and gift yourself (and a friend?? a spot)

I gifted a friend a spot the other day and I’m really excited to hear about her experience.

You may also want to know about my husband

Tully O'Connor

and his 4 month long online couples course - Liberating Love, Relationship Mastery. I went into it in a lot more depth in this post here: "True intimacy and a long type of love"

The Enrolments are only open for another two weeks, before couples get taken on a beautiful, wholesome, sometimes challenging, often confronting, always liberating journey into the self, the other, and how they can truly align themselves and co-create a vision of a thriving relationship together.

Tul’s work is pretty special, and he’s worked with hundreds and hundrends (and hundreds) of Men, Women and Couples over the last 8 years of his career.

Lastly, Some mild changes to my substack schedule.

My intention as been to offer

1 x Essay every Wednesday, which is a personal exploration on topics I find interesting and often relevant to the mother maker community, though not exclusively. This is often more of my creative space to write.

These are mostly available to my paying community here, However there will also be free ones here and there (Roughly once a month) for everyone else here too.

Like this one: "An open letter to mother creatives"

Then my intention on top of the 4x essays, was to offer 1x Guest post a month, 2x mother maker cauldron posts like this, and 2 x “Sundays are for mothers” posts. (These alternating on Sundays).

However, You, and I don’t love a full email inbox, so to simplify (just a little)

So for those here as free subscribers (Aka you’ve gifted me your email, time and energy so thank you)

I’ll be only offering one Mother Maker Cauldron roundup style post each month (free)

One to two Wednesday Essays a month (free)

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For my paid community here (Thank you for supporting me in this way… and I’m assuming supporting yourself as a mother maker by being here too)

I’ll be offering three Wednesday Essays a month (weekly)

Two “Sundays are for Mothers” Interviews (Bi weekly)

and the alternative two Sundays over the month, offering ONE guest post (Paid) and this Cauldron post (Free)

So, In it’s simplicity, expect a Essay each Wednesday from me, and something yummy each Sunday xx

That’s all for today my loves! See you here again for the Mother Maker Cauldron next month. If you’re new, feel free to read Mother Maker Cauldron 01 and Mother Maker Cauldron 02 to be connected to many other great reads/writers and creatives.

If you somehow just stumbled across this post,

I invite you to stay a while…

Lot’s of love, Kat