Habari Gani? Kuumba (Creativity)!

Happy Kwanzaa Day 6 my Lovlies...

…And happy New Year’s Eve. What a blessing it is to have these two days over lap with one another. As we bring 2024 to a close we are able to think about our own sense of creativity we work to bring into the New Year.

Creativity is interesting, it’s always talked about as if some people hold more of it than others innately. Can’t be true. We all have equal amounts of the other principles what should lead me to think creativity is any different?

Instead, I vouch to believe that creativity exists in different avenues of everyone’s world. I mean, if we all had the same form of creativity, it wouldn’t be creative.

When I was younger I neglected the part of me that seeks creativity without structure. For example: I started playing piano when I was 6…but I was classically trained for 8 years. I was bored out my fucking mind. I mean it was fun and intense because wtf I need to move my fingers that fast for? Other than that, the music did not bump (except Burgmüller, he ate), I was not allowed to deviate from that music I was given, I was confined so I began to see my creativity within those boundaries. I got creative about the structure of my practices, the order I’d perform my pieces. I never saw this as creativity then, but it was just a different road for my creativity to wander down and I’m glad I had the space to do it. I have so much organizational creativity not because of it. I’m a super suitcase packer.

I say this to say there are opportunities for us to express creativity in anything we do. Problem solving with your friends, decorating a space, planning out your day. All creative practices. We are all creative and we need expansive minds to work together as we all only have the pieces we can hold, not the whole picture.

Tonight, light your 6th candle, should be the last red one, and think off all the different ways in which you expressed creativity this year, the ways that were hiding from plain view. Then think about how you can bring more of it so you can grow with the people you care about.

- Carma <3

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In case you’ve missed it, here’s the rest of the Kwanzaa series. x