My friend Allison and I have a theory. Everything looks better in black-and-white. We discovered this one day when she posted on either Facebook or Instagram a picture of her dishes overflowing out of her sink and onto her counters. In the monochromatic black-and-white filter it looked like a beautiful piece of art. It really did. Forget rose colored glasses, we decided, what every mom needs is a pair of black-and-white goggles.
Kids throwing a tantrum?
Now a precious captured moment.
The junked up table full of party supplies I’ve been collecting for months in preparation for two summer birthdays?
Now a piece of art any museum would be lucky to have hanging in their gallery.
Baskets upon baskets of laundry needing to be folded?
Now, well it’s still laundry that needs to be folded…but isn’t it the laundry a little prettier?
And that sink overflowing with multi-colored dishes?
Art, titled, A Mother’s Life.
When our messy, chaotic life stresses us out, Allison and I snap a picture and send it through the magic of photo editing. Suddenly beauty arises from that ashy filter. Sometimes we post it, sometimes we send it to each other, sometimes we just stare at it until we see the beauty in it.
Okay, so maybe this isn’t a scientific theory or even all that groundbreaking, but it seriously has caused a shift in the way I view my life, my home, and my kids. Photo editing has helped me become a more patient, *slightly* less neurotic mom. With Instagram at my fingertips, and all its lovely filters and satisfyingly uniform square pictures, I can now see my every day moments for what they really are, beauty. It’s not changing them into something they aren’t or trying to portray a life that’s better than mine really is. It just opens my eyes to a new perspective. It reframes my chaos.
If life is beautiful, and it is, and life is being lived out here in my home, then the evidence of that living is beautiful too. The legos on the floor, the muddy clothes crumpled up on the patio from two days ago, the dirty dishes, the tantrums and the tears: life is being lived here. Beautiful chaotic, messy, life. In capturing the images and pausing to edit them, I remember the way my son’s face lit up when I caught him digging that hole and throwing mud against our fence, or that we made his favorite meal together the night before and he told me “thank you” and kissed me right on the lips as he brought me his dish, which is still sitting in the sink.
I don’t love the messes. I don’t like the tantrums. But I love my people. I love that for this season, they live under my roof, and I will without a doubt miss them terribly when this season is up and their messes become someone else’s problem. Life is lived here.
Give it a try. That moment when all is overwhelming you and you are on the verge of yelling or running away, pull out your phone, snap a picture of the worst of it, and slap a black-and-white filter over that mess. Do you see it? The beauty in the chaos. Be sure to tag @dallasmomsblog so we can enjoy your living art too.
Thank you so much to Allison for sharing real life pictures of her messy sink and piles of laundry. She is the ultimate authentic friend. She shares more of her real life as mom to three kids three and under at http://thenewhammonds.blogspot.com/.
Thanks for this! I am OCD and chaos stresses me out, but it is so true, this is a season. I need not to worry about the messes but enjoy the moment while I have it! I needed this reminder right before school is out for summer! (Black & White)