Last week I was driving to Ewa (a drive I rarely ever do) to participate in a group meditative mural project with youth at Kahi Mohala. As I drove out, thinking about the experience we were going to have together, I felt overwhelmed with aloha for these youth. I realized that I didn’t know anything about them, except for they are the next generation and that makes them so important to all of us! I am absolutely confident that every time I work with youth I’m working with the next group of Hawaii’s educators, law makers, makua, artists, lawyers, practitioners, language experts. That’s a lot of pressure!! And one day, who knows, these youth could be leading workshops for my keiki! So every interaction matters and every youth matters. No matter what they are currently struggling with. They are worth our aloha, time, and attention.

SUPER EXCITING NEWS YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS! Malu and I have been speaking for a while now about starting a long term language program to support families in speaking Hawaiian. Last week we met up with our first language mentor, Tuti Kanahele, a mentor and teacher to many in the Hawaiian Language speaking community. We came up with a program with her that will run for all of 2026 with the goal of building up families in the language that can then strengthen their communities. We’re looking for 5 ohana who are interested in this program. Requirements as of right now are that you need to be an ohana of at least 2 people that live with each other, need to be able to commit to meeting once a month (probably Sundays) on Oahu, and need to have some language fluency as this is not a program to teach the basics of Hawaiian but to strengthen the basics. Please reach out via email if your ohana is interested!