On Sunday we begin Black History Month. Kwanza, derived from Swahili, the East African language. Kwanza is a seven day celebration of the fruits of the harvest and includes culture, family, community, and unity.  

Kuumba, the 6th principle of Kwanza, is known as creativity and is defined as: "Doing always as much as we can in the way we can in order to leave our family and community more beautiful and beneficial than when we inherited it."

George Washington Carver (1861-1943) born into slavery in Missouri, overcame illness, frailty, and discrimination. He was denied entrance to his local grade school so his mother home schooled him and he became the first black graduate of Iowa State University. He is best known for developing crop-rotation methods for conserving nutrients in soil. His discoveries included more than over 300 different products derived from the peanut (including peanut butter), 100 products from sweet potatoes, and 75 from pecans. He is known as the world's greatest agriculturalist. He was not interested in fame or fortune and even declined Thomas Edison's job offer. He found his reward and purpose in life by teaching children of slaves to become independent and self supporting through agriculture.   

Each of us has the creative potential to make our families, our extended families, and our communities more beautiful and beneficial. Many are already doing it; others may need a little push.