[caption id="attachment_5389" align="aligncenter" width="450"] Participants in the Spoken Word Workshop in Missoula, MT[/caption] One of the writing prompts was to visualize a loved one, relative, or someone important in our lives and describe how we felt about them. One of the young men in the group thought of his older brother, who was recently placed in a youth/juvenile detention center. Each participant shared the person they were thinking about, and when it was this young man‚Äôs turn he began to cry. Lily visited with this young man and asked him to write out everything he was feeling. Eventually he began to calm down and seemed to feel better for the moment. Later I was able to visit with this young man about his brother and what exactly it was that made him feel sad. He was worried about his brother, but mostly just missed him. This young man continued to participate in the workshop and, in the end, wrote a powerful poem about himself and his strengths. To see this young man ‚Äì only a teenager - process all these emotions in a healthy, positive way was very humbling. In my experience and education as an adult sharing knowledge with youth, it sometimes seems that our words go unheard and our actions go unseen. It seems as though we are speaking to deaf ears. In reality, our youth are often more connected to the Creator than we are as adults, even with all our knowledge and experience. This was so evident and present in the Spoken Word Workshop participants and their writing. One of the young men shared with us: Life That Grows There are a lot Of things that grow With life plants, humans, and animals All life needs is energy Without energy is like taking water And light away from a plant So giving energy to a plant is Giving you knowledge Knowledge is good for you, so you Need to share with others Then they will pass it down for Generations Our ancestors passed down a lot Of knowledge, like culture. Just writing this poem out brings tears to my eyes again. I go into every youth program open to learn from them, as much as I hope they learn from the facilitator and me. During this Spoken Word Workshop, I learned that our youth do in fact hear what we say. They do see our actions. They are more connected to the Creator than we give them credit for. We - as adults, as a community, as a society, as a relative - just have to learn how to communicate with them and listen to them. Blog by: Krystal Two Bulls - Conscious Alliance Project Coordinator