Kwanzaa Day Six Principle: Kuumba

Kuumba or Creativity is interpreted for Kwanzaa to mean the following -"To always do as much as we can, in the way we can, to always leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it." I love this principle for it's simplicity and potential. A beautiful, clean and orderly environment has such a positive impact on our mental, physical and spiritual energy. Why not take some time this year to volunteer at a community center to teach or assist an art class using recycled or natural materials? Now is also a great time to start gathering information about community gardens in your city. Or if you want to, how about doing some guerrilla gardening to address local eyesores? If your gift is cooking, how about inviting neighbors over for a vegetarian, locally sourced meal or baking a batch of sesame aka benne cookies using organic and fair trade ingredients (be sure to note this on the gift tag) for your family and co-workers? Are you a musician? Gather a group to join you at your home or a friend's home for a candlelit (soy candles of course), no TV evening of music and conversation. Be sure to include a few young people, so that they can be introduced to the concept of a great time without electronics! Do you have no artistic skills whatsoever? Use your creativity to develop a novel business idea? There are actually business plan tools for creative leaning folks that can assist you with this endeavor. Just do something!

Have a great and creative New Year!! Kuumba.