WeBeTheChange: Conversations with Evolutionaries

What might change when the part of us that believes, I don’t matter, is gently welcomed home?In Part Three of Our Inner Ecology, Colleen Akiko and Jhana Bowen enter tender territory with care: the fear that we don’t matter, and how that fear can quietly keep us from connection.Colleen shares an experience during a sound-healing session in Maui, where she encountered a very young part of herself carrying the words, “I don’t matter.” Jhana explores what may become possible when sadness is welcomed home rather than exiled—and how the darker passages in a painting, or a life, can allow the fuller picture to come alive.Together, they reflect on courage, protection, connection, creativity, and the quiet practice of continuing to show up—even when we don’t know what comes next.And perhaps, if it feels helpful, there is one gentle question to carry with you:What part of you may still be waiting to know that you matter?If you’d like a quiet place to continue listening, reflecting, and connecting with others, the Bowl of Light Café is an online gathering place to feel a little more human, restored, and connected.Your invitation awaits you at songrise.live

What part of you has been waiting to be welcomed—not corrected, overcome, or pushed away?In Episode Two of Our Inner Ecology, I continue my conversation with artist and healer Jhana Bowen about the inner parts of us that seek protection, the ways we exile what feels difficult, and the courage it takes to remain connected without abandoning ourselves.Jhana speaks about despair, joy, fear, belonging, and the quiet work of bringing every part of ourselves back into relationship. He also shares a deeply personal story about suicide and the moment when his spiritual practice became more than an idea—it became a way of staying.This conversation is not about fixing what is broken. It is about recognizing that even the parts of us we resist may have a rightful place in our inner ecosystem.The episode closes with a gentle guided practice inviting us to listen inwardly, honor the intelligence of our protective responses, and remember that integration begins when nothing within us has to be rejected.Before listening, please know that because this episode includes a personal story involving suicide and suicidal thoughts, you may wish to care for yourself as you listen. Please take a gratitude pause if needed. Thank you!

How do we remember the human being beneath the label?In Part 2 of A Collage of War, my uncle Dan Strawn and I talk about one of the simplest ways we can stay human in divided times: noticing the names we give each other, and choosing not to let those names replace the person.This conversation begins with the language of war, but it keeps returning to ordinary life — families, politics, neighbors, and the small acts of care that remind us who we are.Dan brings the long and historically-informed view of an elder, and also the simple wisdom of a neighbor: hold the door, help with the garbage can, remember the person.This episode is about language, humanity, and the potent practice of choosing connection over contempt.If you’d like a place to continue reflecting with others, you’re warmly invited into the Bowl of Light Café, a free online gathering place for restorative practice, reflection, and more human conversation. You can find it at SongRise.live by clicking the Bowl of Light Café link at the top.

The Intelligence of ProtectionWhat changes in us—and between us—when we feel safe enough to connect?In Part 1 of Our Inner Ecology, Jhana Bowen and I explore the natural movement between protection and connection—and how our inner sense of safety shapes the way we listen, communicate, create, and belong.This conversation may help you recognize when protective patterns are guiding your responses, understand why those patterns formed, and meet them with less judgment. We consider what allows the body and mind to soften, how connection can begin to return, and what it means to come home to yourself without forcing the door.For anyone who has felt guarded, disconnected, overly responsible, or simply tired of being on alert, this episode offers a compassionate way to understand what may be happening beneath the surface—and what can begin to shift.Discover more of Jhana's offerings at jhanabowen.comAnd if this stirred something in you and you’d rather not process it alone, the Bowl of Light Café is a free place to practice presence and reflection together—find your invitation at SongRise.live.

What happens to the human heart when war fades into daily life?In this three partWeBeTheChange series, A Collage of War, we’ll journey into the historical conscience of war with elder author Dan Strawn.Dan Strawn opens this first episode with a short but potent poem he wrote before the Iraq invasion. Then he widens the frame: war as a bully-pattern, war as greed, war as a spiritual injury to a nation’s character. His lived memory carries a steady insistence to not normalize what should break our hearts.If you’ve felt overwhelmed by the current clamor, you’ll appreciate the slower tempo of this episode to actually see the shape of what’s happening.For a free place to practice presence and reflection together, find your invitation to the Bowl of Light Café at SongRise.live.