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Conservatism, Reaction, and the Elder's Responsibility: A Message to My Age Grade

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Conservatism, Reaction, and the Elder's Responsibility: A Message to My Age Grade Great Day, Fam. This one right here? It’s not for everyone. If you’re not at or approaching Eldership—defined in our tribe as about 55 years old and up—you might not feel all of this. But if you’re curious, or if you’re one of those younger souls already walking with wisdom, you’re welcome to keep reading. This message is for the Elders. For those of us who should know better. And yes—I’m including myself. Let’s Start With the Mirror I’ve got to confess something. I’ve been guilty. Guilty of being reactionary. Guilty of falling into the trap of conservatism. Guilty of romanticizing the past. Guilty of looking at our young people and calling them “soft”—as if we were born warriors, as if we didn’t have to become who we are through fire, failure, and guidance. Many of us Elders are stuck in a loop. We remember only the highlights of our youth—the toughest times we survived, the boldest moments ...
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Control Your Kuumba, Or Your Kuumba Will Control Your Life

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Control Your Kuumba, Or Your Kuumba Will Control Your Life Great Kujichagulia: Today we will look at controlling our Kuumba. Kuumba is a powerful tool, but we have to exercise our Kujichagulia in dealing with it. Our ancestors' first rule upon entering a temple as a disciple was control of thought, but for us it is control of our imagination. Time and time again I have witnessed people creating their own hell that spills out to everyone around them. These people have plenty of Kuumba but lack the kujichagulia to control their creation. This comes from the luxury that our ancestors labor, blood, sweat and tears have created for us, more free time. We have people wasting this powerful resource to play mind games with themselves. They sit at home, offices, coffee shops, etcConcocting fuckery that usually takes a hold and causes confusion.   “Kuumba is a powerful energy that lets each of us create. But we need to use our kujichagulia to control it.” Our Imagination is like a horse...
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Unity Of Kuumba

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  Unity of Kuumba Great Umoja in this week of Kuumba: I am excited to begin this week. I think that we need to go a little further in Kuumba to help you create the practices that will help you move to the next level. I believe (Imani) there is no better place for this to happen than the week of Kuumba. So let's jump in! “We need to shift our thinking about Kuumba.” Great Umoja and today we are once again talking about the Unity of Kuumba. We will return to this combination many more times, in fact in this system we will return and converse about all the combinations of the Principles over and over again. This helps us move through the 3 levels of learning. Today we want to talk about how we can use Kuumba to strengthen our Umoja, and I will share some of the GNJ methods so that you can incorporate them, or have an idea for your path. “Groups, Organizations and Societies that use Kuumba to reinforce Umoja will flourish and grow.” We spoke yesterday about the 3 levels of learning on ...
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Breaking The Cycle

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  Breaking the Cycle  Great Nia Great day FAM, we have made it to the day of Nia in the week of Nia, and now we have to look at Nia through the eyes of Nia. Wow, I didn’t think about this until I sat down on my keyboard and started pounding out this blog. The Purpose of purpose. Why do we do what we do? Are you living a life on purpose or are you living on accident. Do you Know why you are doing and pursuing what you are doing and pursuing? Sounds like stupid questions, but many people when asked can not answer these questions outside of using the term “I have too”. Many of us are trapped in a cycle of accidents, and don’t know how to get out! So here is where we continue the process. Looking at the ways in which we can break the cycles that we are presently in. If you have started building on the ideas that we have been sharing for the last few weeks, you will eventually begin to see changes within yourself, and eventually you begin to affect the environment that you are in. ...
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The Family Pyramid

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  The Family Pyramid Great Ujamaa: Continuing in the line of the discussion that we have had all week, I want to remind those that have been reading up to this point about the “The Family Pyramid”. You are sitting at the pinnacle or sat at the top of this pyramid at least until you had your own children. Now I want to explore what makes up this pyramid. This pyramid is made up of your living family, and your Ancestors. Your whole life is built upon those who came before you. Now I want to ask a simple question, what does that mean? Don’t just move by this question! I want you to really break down what this means for you, that the building blocks for all parts of your being are built upon those who came before you. In a sense others have sacrificed so that you can be on top, and you are now (metaphorically) standing upon them. Do you have a responsibility toward them? Is your life adequately reflecting the fact of your position on the pyramid, or are you just breathing air and hopin...
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The MisUsed Resource

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  The MisUsed Resource Great Imani: We have hit the final day of Ujamaa and it has been an exciting and trying week, but we have made it and we will continue building in the weeks to come. I once again want to stress my Gratitude ( the M-7 principle for the principle of Ujamaa) for those that take the time out of their busy schedule to read these blogs. I know that time is precious so I will continue to bring content that you can use as well as think about. I have to always remember as well as you do,  that the goal should be to always bring as much value as possible. Since we are striving to free ourselves first internally then manifest that in the world, I want to look at the misused power of Imani. Imani is the principle that talks about  Faith , Belief, and Trust. These are principles that have rode with our people and boosted us up when we needed it. Now is the time for us to talk about this resource and how it is being misused and possibly how we can direct it towa...
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Kuumba Can Free Us!......Maybe

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  Kuumba Can Free Us!......Maybe Great Kuumba: It is the start of another day, and I want to greet you and thank you for checking out this blog and hopefully you have joined the email list or maybe even considered becoming a supporter. We have made it to our Kuumba post and eventual show. We are in the week of Ujamaa and it flew through. I can't say it was easy, but it was fast. In changing up my schedule I have thrown myself totally off, right now I am at my adventure, and have on the wrong day shirt. I guess it will take a few more weeks before I am totally in sync with my style. Every day I am trying to create content of value for you to get and use. The most surprising thing for me is that I am not a Kuumba baby, because I spend a lot of time at her altar. Each and every day is a creative event for me so believe me when I say I am no stranger to Ms. Kuumba. Now Let's get to the discussion. “Ujamaa is about more than just living in a community. It is truly about working toge...
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Ujamaa Of Rites Of Passage 2

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  Great Nia I am trying to adjust to my new schedule, and on some parts of it I am victorious but on other parts….. My goal was to switch the time of my show, and do it in the evening so that I could have more time in the morning, but now I am tired and dragging throughout the day. I also wanted to spend time doing Folktales & Proverbs on the Wisdom platform, but that is not working. I also am trying to get familiar with some new software that will help with my blog, it works well but I lost a whole article and had to rebuild it. Thank goodness I backup all my stuff on Gdoc. By the way the tobacco beast has taken a bite and is holding on, so that is also complicating the whole thing. So that is enough of my woes, now it is time to take another dive into the culture. I hope that you are getting some value and inspiration from these discussions. Remember we are not just talking about these things to just talk, we are having these discussions to make changes first with ourselves, ...
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How To Use Your Kujichagulia (Finding Your Way)

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  How to use Self Determination Kujichagulia is my favorite principle, because it exposes us to the power of defining. As you know I am a kuji baby, but even with that, I have to pay homage to the principle of the week (Ujamaa). This is the principle that deals with cooperation and resources, but Kujichagulia helps us identify what our resources are, how they can be used, and how they can and should be protected. Self Determination helps us decide as a group what borders we need to create on the community and tribal level. The same applies to our personal boundaries. These are important because it allows us to form unique identities that allow for separation. This separation allows us to distinguish between things. When we can distinguish we can take ownership. Now, many people are against this idea, but it is essential for us to understand this in the modern world. This is the foundation of Nation building. Once again the source is in Kujichagulia. Once we are able to identify the...
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