"Yaah Yefon"

"Yaah YEFON "

     So its 3:00am and I cannot possible explain the weekend I had. However one thing sent me to this blog at this hour. Sometime ago I got invited by His Royal Majesty Fon Nganjo of Njirong village. Well if you have been following the blog you will gather that I was born in Cameroon and I absolutely respect and adore my culture. When I got this invitation I was a nervous wreck and had a million questions on what the Fon needed to discuss with my husband and I. If you are not familiar with our culture as Cameroonians you might not get the big deal. Our Fons are revered. They are our traditional rulers. You don't walk into the palace and visit the Fon. You request his audience in so many steps through his council. What could I have done to be summoned to meet with the traditional leaders of our Land in the USA? The question kept me up and wondering. My mother who can usually whip up answers for my many concerns was not too sure either. All she advised was to make sure we came in with our heads covered up as we could not be in audience with the Fon with our heads not covered up, meaning I needed scarf or head tie and my husband needed a hat.
   
    Sunday finally came and I had to face the reality of being summoned by a great ruler of my people. We arrived to the Palace and we were welcomed by HRM Fon Nganjo's wife who is "Ma Wintoh" (mother/wife of the palace). She had a feast laid out. We ate and sat down, waiting to be called in.

Dressed in our Sundays best. Toghu (Atoghu print specially hand made in Cameroon for events of this magnitude)

    The Hour finally came and I was called in. After a couple of welcomes and more, the women in the room took me into a separate room with a new set of clothes set up and ready for me to change into. How did they get my size is all I could think of. I mean everything was my exact size. (Wondering how I got photos? Well everyone around me knows I document everything. And my sister Anyi who is Godmother to my number 3 is behind this phone camera in oohhhs and ahhhhs capturing all of this. I am truly grateful that we had a conversation about this and she showed up to support me.)

         

All dressed up and ready to go.

His Royal Majesty Fon Nganjo of Njirong village addresses the reason of the summon and traditional rites follow.

 

In this audience was; 

HRM FON of Nganjo of Njirong village.

HRM FON of  NKAR, HRM FON of Babungo, HRM FON OF BAMUKUMBIT, MBE TAZI. Members of the USNWFC, family and friends.

Thankful for you wonderful women who went out of your way to make it to the Palace to support me. (From Left to right -Anyi, Aunty Rosemary aka aunty Mermaid, Yefon  and Star) 

And this is how my weekend ended. I am completely overwhelmed. You have no idea how much of an out of body experience this was to me. I love to serve and contrary to what most people who don't know me on a personal level think, I absolutely hate being the center of  attention. 

   If you look at the photos and videos I am completely overwhelmed. I never saw this coming, I have always served with love and with my whole heart. I am very thankful to the people of Njirong and the world at large for even considering that I serve in any capacity. My everyday dream is to be of service to the world especially its women. My everyday desire is to encourage,empower and support the women in my community and beyond  My goal is to ensure that every woman  I get a chance to meet personally or through my writing  is impacted positively and encouraged to walk in their purpose. As a mother of four incredibly diverse children,several Godchildren and a huge external family  I  speak from a point of experience, empathy, failure, success, love and determination. My goal is to promote a culture where women feel limitless while striving to become the best version of themselves. Thank you to the people of Njirong, you all absolutely blew my mind. May God give me the grace, wisdom, love, kindness, and dedication I need to serve you all. 

I share this experience with you because you all are a part of this journey. #Nomamipikinleftbehind. 

Yours truly, 

" Yaah Yefon of  Njirong "

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Loving EQUALLY

    Hello there fam! Yesterday I was going to share this post however, I am in recovery from a beautiful busy weekend. I got to enjoy brunch with a room full of royalty on Sunday in honor of mothers day.

      The entire graduation and mothers day month I get to interact with family, friends, clients, ask questions, get emails, and more. Its been on my mind for years to share about the importance of loving all your children EQUALLY. And the importance of loving your family members equally or at least working at it.

      On mothers day, I spend a lot of time reading, observing, and asking questions because its in my nature to observe my surroundings. I listen to women make what i choose to call absurd judgments on each other. I even read somewhere on social media that as a mother if you didn't get a gift and bought your own gift, you are pathetic. Really boo? Are you serious right now? Pathetic for loving my self? Some women even go as far as talking down their friends and sisters who are not mothers yet with some story of an age range and more. Anyhow in all this I have come to find the month of May to be very interesting. Did I mention that some people are actually unable to call their mothers on "mothers day" because mommy is in heaven? And the whole mothers day charade just overwhelms them? Yep! And then we have the beautiful graduation celebrations. And thanks to social media we get to celebrate with each other in a way that we have not been able to for many years. People from far and near can watch you live, you can tweet, snap chat, all of that. Yes May is an emotionally charged month.

  Some of us don't understand that our children should be loved equally and celebrated as often as we can. (Celebration does not translate to a sometimes unnecessary party). Love all your children equally. And loving your child means being able to discipline them when its called for. Not enabling bad behavior as compensation for your bad parenting. Not enabling an addiction, laziness, and mediocrity because its easier. Don't love them according to your idea of achievement and or success! Celebrate the little things so that they will aim for greater. Your children are waiting to hear you applaud their achievements  without any judgments. You are not allowed to love your physician child more than the musician. It is not OK. You are not allowed to celebrate those with grand kids more than those who don't have any kids. And it gets deeper. You love the married kids more than the single parent. We cannot continue to live in a community where parents choose to discriminate amongst their kids, and in so doing bringing division amongst their children. Who said that it was OK to love your children only when you feel like they are "successful" and I insist that success is relative. Its your responsibility to love your children equally. You openly celebrate the children that are "publicly successful". And yes public success is a topic for another day.

  In this month of May, lets choose to love on purpose. Love and respect women enough to not suggest that they must have children at a certain age. Leave their wombs alone.  Love all your children equally. Love yourself enough to not let these obvious prejudices hold you back from living life like its golden. Love all your siblings equally regardless of their financial statements. 
Love each other on purpose. 

No Mami Pikin Left Behind!

Happy Mothers day. Choose YOU!

   And its mothers day. Happy mothers day to the most consistent cape less superheroes. Society better not get too excited about giving us one calendar holiday. We would take it, however if you have been around a mother, are a mother, or know a mother you will agree that  there is not a single holiday that is more important than a holiday that celebrates mothers.

  This mothers day I want you to take an oath of "self Love".
I want you to love yourself as much as you love the responsibilities that come with the  crown of motherhood. Love yourself enough to take care of "YOU" mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually and psychologically. Put you first. Get out of the habit of expecting anyone else to. Do not give anyone else the power of your sanity. 
   
     This mothers day I want you to take an oath of "Commitment to yourself". Your relationship with yourself is the most important one you’ve got. Make a commitment to take care of yourself, as you would you do everyone else. This mothers day my prayer is that you have a conversation with your self. That we will use the same radar we use to evaluate others on ourselves. This mothers day take your investigations on the inside. Are you living happily? Are there things you can do differently in order to improve your quality of life? Your quality of life matters!

    This mothers day don't wait for anyone else to buy you flowers. If you love flowers buy yourself some flowers. If you enjoy movies, take your self to the movies and so on and so forth. Take back your power this mothers day. Commit to giving your self those things that you absolutely desire. Give  yourself your time, your energy,  and most especially your love. Your children and society needs a mother that loves herself so much there is no room for self sabotage.

  What you commit to today creates your future.  The words you speak, the thoughts you think, the people you commit to. Choose wisely. Let today be a new day. Take an oath to Love you unconditionally.

  Happy Mothers day to my favorite people in the world.  
NO MAMI PIKIN LEFT BEHIND! Keep Soaring!!! 

If you are a mother in the DMV register and join us for brunch honoring mothers next Sunday. 
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mamipikin-talks-presents-a-royal-brunch-in-honor-of-all-mothers-tickets-34020360815

Kisses,