The Unique View

As we enter into 2016, today's reflection is more than fitting. Faith - To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle. I wrote the following several years ago and I think it is fitting for today's reflection. "Desire will create passion and passion will then override fear and limitation. Sometimes you will clearly see how things should be, but realize you are not living in what you see, which will cause dissatisfaction in your soul. Dissatisfaction will then create a determination inside of you to change what is not seen in the natural, into what is only known in the spiritual. Faith". My bothers and sisters, dig down deep and pull up your faith. Restoration can only be materialized in God's time when we have that faith, the size of the mustard seed. As you go into this new year, rise up and do that which you know you were created to do. Rise up and take your ...

Creativity - To do always as much as we can, in the way that we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it. All around us we can see creation. There is not a place that you or I can see where there is no creativity. The mason builds with bricks. The carpenter builds with wood and steal. The baker builds with ingredients forming beauty to the eye and flavor to the palate. The artist of paint creates masterpieces that live for generations. Creativity is in all of us for all of us. My brothers and sisters, we were created to create. We are to look out for others, build foundations, and as the reflection states, leave this world better than when we inherited. It is that simple. Take action. Be Blessed

Purpose – Nia – To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness. Today’s Kwanzaa reflection is fitting for this time of the year. With one day left in 2015, many are thinking and planning their next move going into 2016. Purpose. Are you living in the purpose and vision that God has given you? Are you currently in a place of employment where you no longer belong? Have you achieved your goals in any way? These are very important questions to ask yourself. Many are content and more complacent in their living, not listening or understanding the call of God to do more, to do His will, to come out of a land that He has said is dry and barren. Fear of the unknown will paralyze, but faith and assurance will drive you to the next level. Today is December 30, 2015. Will you remain focused on that which no longer serves you, or will you focus on God’s voice and rise up to the occasion of doin...

Cooperative Economics – Ujamaa – To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together. Statistics are showing that the black owned business is far, few and in between.  Many businesses have closed their doors due to the lack of support from their communities. Dreams deferred but surely not denied. You can walk around the neighborhood and see the success of the corner stores owned by families that have put their minds, money and physical abilities together. I have heard the conversations such as, why are those people coming over here and opening businesses? Those people? Before I educated myself on the dynamics, I too use to say those very same words. Those people are our Asian, Indian, Ethiopian and Sudanese brothers and sisters. Those people, are families who have banded together to create. They have stepped out of the box of just dreaming and talking, they are doing. Even if they did it and it failed, they did it and most like...

UJIMA– Collective Work & Responsibility. To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers and sisters problems our problems and solve them. When I was growing up, all neighbors had a say in my well-being. If I got caught doing something I had no business, or was in a place I shouldn’t have been trust me, I got got. LOL. Then I was marched home if the offense was bad enough, and you know what that meant right? Yep! I got got again. This does not happen much today. As a child in the late 60’s and early 70’s, because of the relationship my parents built in the community, I was given notes to take to the corner store and whatever was on that note, I was given to take to my mother. One of the big stores was Safeway and the manager’s name was, Mr. Black. I remember because this was part of my upbringing and it taught me about relationship and trust. I watched my mother as she talked with those store managers and built relationships. My mother was trusted bas...

Self-Determination – Kujichagulia – To define ourselves, name ourselves, to create ourselves, and speak for ourselves. Today’s reflection for Kwanzaa is, Self-Determination, in Swahili it is called Kujichagulia. Self determination to me is just like empowering self. Many wait on someone or something to get them in motion. Many wait for a word from someone, or wait on a devastating event to push them to do something they should have been doing all along. This type of mindset is stagnating and debilitating. Yes, there are countless ways to get motivation, but the best way to rise up is to be determined. We must continuously evaluate, remind, and speak into ourselves. We must pray for godly wisdom and direction. We must be humble enough to understand what God is saying to us, and to do what He has asked us to do. God has already ordered out steps. We must know where we are and know exactly where we desire to go. We must shed the weight of waiting. We must stop talking ourselves...

Unity – Umoja – To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race. Today is the first day of Kwanzaa. Many around the African American community are celebrating this beautiful time of reflection, preparing to get centered, and grounded in the principles that has created a living foundation of life and love. Today is a day of Unity in the English language, Umoja in the Swahili language. Merriam Webster defines unity as:  A quality or state of not being multiple: oneness. A condition of harmony: accord. A totality of related parts: an entity that is a complex or systematic whole. Unity. What is it? Looking back over the past 11 months of 2015, do we see unity? Can we look back even further and see this thing called unity? Do we see unity with the multiple killings of men, women, and children? Do we see unity when it appears that division is more powerful? Unity, how can we hold tight to this principle and really live it? Though many devastating...