I did the Lotus Flower workshop with a 17-year-old girl who has had a very tough home life over the past four years. Her mother, a domestic violence survivor, referred her because she was concerned for her daughter and the things she has witnessed growing up. She said she had no interest in spending time with her friends anymore and had been isolating herself a lot lately.
I was afraid I was going to lose her, afraid she wouldn’t agree to come see me anymore, so I sat down with her and asked her to color with me. She looked surprised at first, and smiled like maybe she thought it was silly, but she did it! And she talked to me about her past and how she is determined not to let it affect her future. She said, “I need a flower to match what my future looks like because I have a bright one, just nobody sees that.”
She is doing very well in school and I will likely be working with her until she graduates in May. Therefore, my prime objective with her right now is to encourage her to keep that determination and enter college in the Fall.
