Aloha 🌺     I’m Colleen Weaver Bird 🪶Akiko, writing from the high desert mountains of northwestern Nevada, ancestral home of the Washoe people.  I live at the base near Topaz Lake with my husband, Chris, and our furry four-legged companion, "Smiles When Running" Lilah.​

 

​

​

​​

​

 

 

 

​​​

     A dear friend and mentoring elder gave me the nickname, "Weaver Bird."  I love gathering people together to warmly share encouragement, insights, laughter and wisdom to bless us all. 

     So, I've been busy weaving fun and fortifying resources for you to discover on this website--which is sort of like a trail map with ever-expanding hiking options!

​

Hats 🤠​    In order to offer these, I seem to wear a wide variety of . . . hats! 🧢 👒 🎩 ⛑​

Yep, I could fill a whole hat rack with my current roles, like: 

  * Keynote Concert Presenter

  * Blog and Podcast Host

  * Singer-songwriter, Recording Artist 

  * Content Creator 

  * Group Facilitator 

  * Transformational Coach

  * Juggler of all the above 🤪  

     

Whatever hat I'm wearing, my happy place is offering my best for each of us to wondrously awaken into our full potential!  For me, this involves encouragment for embodying more joy, clarity, and purpose . . . to keep our inner fire burning brighter than ever! 🔥

​

Musical Immersion 🎶​ 

My childhood was richly infused with classical music,

with my concert violinist Dad often sauntering through

the house, practicing in his slippers. His frequent

rehearsals and concerts provided my young

imagination with vividly colored stories.
     Learning to play the piano 🎹 began early, with a

regimen of recitals and competitions.  In adolescence

my parents tortuously divorced; my mom moved back

to Japan and my world shattered. 
I found comfort holding the same guitar I still love to

play, building fingertip callouses while jamming with

Grand Funk Railroad and Judy Collins on my grandpar-

ents' turntable.  Songwriting became my daily solace in

genres that superseded classical training. 
     The next few decades found me raising children, teaching music lessons, co-founding two nonprofits, obtaining certifications and offering transformational coaching and energy healing sessions.  I also had great fun gigging with a variety of bands, and as a duo and/or solo artist.  
     On many Sundays I also shared music in different kinds of churches. These compassionate communities helped me move through a crippling fear of singing in public.  As a teenager my body had taken in a derogatory comment about my singing, and for decades my throat fearfully constricted when I sang. That was, as my son used to say as a toddler, "a BIG owie!"

 Songs that Uplift and Heal  🎹    Now I enjoy speaking and sharing my songs in public venues, spiritual gatherings, special events and workshops--and sometimes singing and even writing songs with audiences.  Songs help my heart to relax, open, release and hear in a deeper way.  Do you find this true for you?  ❤️  
    I marvel at how effective a song can be for dissolving illusions, awakening us to our timeless inner spark. These awakenings have their own way of rippling out to evolve our patterns and relationships and--astonishingly, to effect and heal our whole tottering world! 🌎
     As I produce and record music in our home studio, the Pine Nut Mountains 🏔 peek in my window and diverse high desert birds 🦅 offer their songs, too.  It's like "audio-painting" from a rich palette of sounds and possibilities that keep me ever intrigued. 🎨 🎵  From soothing instrumentals and chants to bare naked ballads and upbeat tunes -- song creation has attended me for over 50 years.  It's how I live life, or Life lives me--all mixed up yet held intact by prevailing Grace.  
     Songs have also been medicinal for me. They've helped me heal through intense grieving and deep loss... such as when my 19 year old son, Gabe, passed through the veil in 2023 from a fentanyl overdose.  You can hear a song for Gabe, as well as other songs and their backstories, on my music-dedicated website, 

AkikoSongs.com.  

​

 Simple Joys 🥰  I also like camping, finding cool rocks, putzing in the greenhouse, "body yawns" during my instructor husband's Tai Chi Chih circles, watching eagles, listening to mockingbirds and hiking in the sagebrush of the high desert mountains.  Oh... and chocolate--really dark chocolate! 🍫😋

     

     So that's a bit about me.  You'll get to know me more, as well as our wonderful guests, in We Be The Change podcast conversations.  The foundational truth shining in all you'll find here is this:  we are all connected--one family with no real separations; ONE love.  This wondrous awakening continues to touch every aspect of my life.  ​

     How about you? ​​​​What has your journey been like thus far?  How can I be of support to you in these volatile times?  I hope you'll share and join our encouraging We Be The Change collaborative, too!

​

✨ ​Colleen Akiko 🪶

​​​​

Please share your thoughts, suggestions or questions in the subject box below.
I'll be responding promptly.  Mahalo. 🙏🏽 💌