Lies Between Us - Roger Ray Bird

This topic here feels way too big to even address, dang, it’s huge. Earlier this week I planned a half-hearted attempt to do something about it, but then stopped. With the subject looming overhead, I tried to just move on with my daily activities, you know, staying busy and trying not to think about it. Alas I could not escape, I had no choice. A few days ago I started to do something about it, I began planning a public event in Madison for this week, planning it for today actually, for ...

How do we even begin to define depression? Well, from where I sit it appears to be an unsettled emotional state that crosses over into a physical ailment, brought on by a belief of being held down or pushed aside. Under mild conditions we are perhaps agitated, self-loathing, and unhopeful. Advancing then to moderate levels, a helplessness arrives, we seem to seek shelter in the negative, and even our once happy places are then shuttered, verifiably closed for the season. Moving then to e...

There is so much adhesive hardship in life, aka trauma. Within this vibrant episode, my dear gal pal Shequila and I discuss substance abuse, poor mental health, and more. Shequila knows the all-consuming grip of addiction too-too well, having witnessed her mother's struggle with abusing heroin and other substances for three decades. She shouldered the role of caregiver to her four younger siblings while still a child herself, then found interludes of refuge at her grandmother's apartment in t...

The complete CHAPTER TWO audio recording, read by Roger.CHAPTER ONE can be found in the previous pod episode #23. Chapter Two excerpt:(a poem) Mirror-Mirror Why Do You Hate Me So?Yes I see, yes Mirror I see the glass is clear yes I see…Yet Mirror, why always same-same the seeing? Storm clouds shower thy under-roof’s nestSans shelter, sans safety, sans calmA rare outing, apart thy guardian’s wingSome sunshine sprinkles atop thou’s madnessNear here, only near here my dear, fear the m...

Over 100 friends packed the room, and in excess of 250 joined the FB livestream. Without discussion, we sit amidst an opioid and fentanyl epidemic. National suicide rates have reached true crisis levels. Alas, addiction and poor mental health casts their anguish upon us all. Eager to transcend the torment, chiefly we lack the comprehension of where or how to begin. Realities of outpacing the suffering lingers as a far-off fantasy, and a wealth of us are convinced there is no way o...

A read-aloud of chapter one from the new book. Partial text:My scars represent my best lessons…my stumbles hurt me, while teach me. Growing into the learned weathering of up’s and downs, aka residing in the middle, this my greatest challenge awhile my greatest opportunity. I try, I really try, I try to remain honest that even when low, an up period is on its way coming to me, fricking always.With or without placement of middle, we all do it our way. No other way is available to us except...

Attempting to begin my life anew, I recognized the biggest challenge is overcoming the worst parts of myself. Beginning to claw my way up and out of that shitty hell, I found the need to silence the defeating voice in my head and go, just go. Dissecting the value of friends in my life, I also share a reading from my new book Daddy Why Were You A Drug Addict: Winning the War Amid My Angel and Devil Within. I share insightful details concerning the six foreword authors of the book, and our shar...

Coach Sarah and I discuss the might of the written word…and what about the value of our stories shared anyway? Both regarding the writer awhile the reader, we consider the realities of publishing our life’s experiences…personal and professional. How to do it…self-publish, hybrid publishing, or working with a formal publisher? What happens after writing for weeks or even years, you realize the need to either start over or re-write the lost sort-out of your most burdensome inner trauma? Sarah a...

Stuck? Needing change? Wanting a new life. Well then, how?Here I get real. Hyper-F'ing real and bare all. I hold back nothing.Is it possible to get something else out of life...is it possible...is it really?Could I try something different? Could I even f*cking try to try?The book:Daddy, Why Were You A Drug Addict?: Winning the War Amid My Angel and Devil Withinby Roger Ray BirdISBN 979-8218286651Available on Amazon for $11Roger's social directory: HERE

Charles won conference three times as a wrestler in high school and went on to wrestle in college. He graduated with a management degree from University of Wisconsin and achieved success in corporate America before getting divorced and experiencing homelessness.Charles, aka Pops, is an amazing thinker and speaker, explaining how he was always a planner in life but after being twice incarcerated and then living outdoors, he had to learn to just roll with it. My mother was clinically insan...