ABSTRACT
Hawaiian elders and keepers of the ancient wisdom teach that every child comes into the world with a beautiful bowl of light, a life-enhancing guide that nourishes his soul and accompanies him on his journey of self-discovery until it returns to its source at his life's end. However, the parable warns that as he passes through life the child might experience cruelty and sufferings. These hurts and harms are like heavy stones that fall into the bowl and block out some of the light. Lenny was a 14-year-old adolescent with a stern face that was rarely lit by a smile. The week before his sixth birthday, his mother died from blunt force trauma injuries when domestic violence escalated. The pain of his loss, the lack of support and the terror he endured in his early childhood had cast a shadow over his life and blocked out some of his light. Lenny had turned into a hard-hearted stone child.
