Nia Means Purpose

Mirror Art Design by Sayy W. Pauly

“To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness”

–from the official Kwanzaa website.

Habari Gani! On this fifth day of Kwanzaa we acknowledge Nia — Purpose.

Central to each person’s purpose is finding contentment and peace. To be sustainably happy is a universal desire, wish and longing.

The sheer thought and then intention of a personal purpose in life leads to your body’s self-healing, and to your mind-spirit’s resolve for a complete, holistic health.

Abundant health of body-mind-spirit is a purpose you may have even spoken and affirmed for yourself, while the “collective vocation” of Purpose may seem unimaginable and even unattainable.

This is only because your own Nia is still relatively unimaginable and unattainable. That’s why you keep working on it, and it is not yet done/reached/achieved.

The Nia envisioned by Kwanzaa –the building and developing of the community–  can be accomplished once you are certain of and committed to your own Nia.

Once your purpose is clear, caring for others with purpose will result in group-shifting, positive changes. These will include more evidence of healing touch and affection (physical), compassionate expression (mental) and love in its many forms, including forgiveness and mercy (emotional and spiritual).  

The body-mind-heart-spirit of the collective will thus be taken care of.

–Rev. Niamo Nancy Muid