“If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands? -Milton Berle                

Art Peace by Kyia Watkins. Place your order at www.atpeacearts.com

If you are anything like me, you have probably asked the question above almost every day!  (Sometimes 3 times a day!) As another Mother’s Day comes around, it always makes me think about how boring and uneventful life has with my 3 children…NOT!  When you’re juggling work, 3 children’s schedules and hobbies, home life, laundry and time to breathe (that ball is  frequently dropped!) life can get pretty crazy!  In spite of wishing for extra hours in the day or extra arms and a vacation every few months, most of us wouldn’t trade our mommy-ness for the world!

When I read the poem below, it made me laugh out loud, so I had to share it with you!  It’s the perfect example of  how crazy a mom’s day can get in a matter of seconds.  The poem has been adapted from the wonderful series of books by Laura Numeroff (Me and my kiddos love these silly books!)

If you give a mom a muffin….

If you give a mom a muffin,
She’ll want a cup of coffee to go with it.
She’ll pour herself some.
Her three-year-old will spill the coffee.
She’ll wipe it up.
Wiping the floor, she’ll find dirty socks.
She’ll remember she has to do laundry.
When she puts the laundry in the washer.
She’ll trip over boots and bump into the freezer.
Bumping into the freezer will remind her
she has to plan for supper.
She will get out a pound of hamburger.
She’ll look for her cookbook
(101 Things TO Do With a Pound of Hamburger).
The cookbook will be sitting under a pile of mail.
She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow.
She will look for her checkbook.
The checkbook is in her purse,
that is being dumped out by her two-year-old.
She will smell something funny.
She will change the two-year-old’s diaper.
While she is changing the diaper, the phone will ring.
Her five-year-old will answer and hang up.
She’ll remember she wants to phone a friend for coffee.
Thinking of coffee will remind her
that she was going to have a cup.
And chances are…

If she has a cup of coffee…

Her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

~Author unknown

Hope you enjoyed the poem!  May you enjoy your muffin & cup of coffee in peace on Mother’s Day!

Until next time, 

Live, Laugh & Be At Peace.

-Kyia

I was having one of those days at my Admin assistant job today. You know one of those days where you get that email that something needs to be fixed immediately that you messed up? (immediately means it should have been fixed yesterday!) The feeling in your stomach that says, “Ugh, I so want to quit this job!” Yes, I’m having that kind of day!

So, I walk down the hall to see a co-worker & friend to vent about how rotten I feel…she’s not at her desk. As I turn around, looking all sad and down, another coworker asks where everyone is. As we start chatting & walking back to the torture chamber, I mean my desk, she stops in mid-sentence & says, “Look, a rainbow!”.

Sure enough, there was a rainbow on the ceiling all the way down the hall! I was like a kid in a toy store, immediately pulling out my camera to see if I could capture it! My coworker & I ran around looking for where it was coming from and found that the sun was shining through someone’s glass award in their office window! I know this happens all the time, but it meant so much at that moment! That rainbow served as a reminder to keep my head up, know that everything will be OK & keep celebrating the small PEACES in life! I will be celebrating all day! And to think I would have missed it if I kept walking with my head down! Today, hold your head up high so you can see the rainbow right in front of you!

Live. Laugh. Be At Peace.

-Kyia

It was the word, UBUNTU, A South African philosophy which when translated to English means, “I am who I am because of who we all are.” (Whew! Powerful!)

I was truly inspired as she told me the philosophy behind the word and why she felt such a connection to it. She explained how it is a constant reminder about how the people of South Africa treated her like one of their own, while she was studying abroad in Africa. She had traveled there to help take care of them, but in turn, they enriched her life by opening their homes, lives and hearts. Her tattoo is a constant reminder to think bigger than just herself. (She has it on her foot to signify all of the walking she did while she was there!)

After talking to Meaghan, I should have done some work, but I just had to look further into the meaning of this amazing philosophy. I found these two passages on Wikipedia:

Archbishop Desmond Tutu offered a definition in a 1999 book:

A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.

Tutu further explained Ubuntu in 2008:

One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity.We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.

Reading this and talking to Meaghan got me thinking about how powerfully simple the concept of ubuntu is, but how complex we make it out to be. I know that when money is tight and I feel like I am being pulled in a million directions with family, work, art & life, that the last thing I think about is doing my part to contribute to the whole. I’m just trying to stay afloat most times!

But contributing to the whole may not be as hard as we think. It’s not just about the giving money or giving hours of time. We are contributing to the whole every time we smile at a stranger or let someone go in front of us in the grocery line. For us creative people, it’s the reason we create. For us mothers, its the reason we work hard to raise our children well. And when the stranger smiles back or our children say ‘Thank you’ in public (without being told to say it), we feel good inside. We put in and we got back. Simple as that.

Think about it this way…if the whole had not molded, shaped, or influenced us, we would not be who we are today. And if that wasn’t scary enough, if we fail to contribute to the whole, we risk robbing our children of the knowledge, love & inspiration that the whole provides. Do we really have a choice but to give back to something that has given so much to us & will continue to give long after we have left this Earth? I know that I’m definitely forever indebted to the whole!

Starting today, let’s make an effort to live by the ubuntu philosophy and in turn, enjoy peace within.

How will you remember to invest in the whole? (I’ll give you a hint… My reminder won’t be a tattoo, lol)…Let’s have a conversation!

Until next time,

Live, Laugh & Be At Peace.