🔊 @OnyxBirdMedia • Notes, Dreams, & Experiences • Onyx Bird Media
Join t.me/OnyxBirdMedia to follow new ideas, expressions, & multimedia projects by Mara Bird.
Find our public group share chat here: t.me/+jWZ5QxQ3aCpmNzIx
t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/3
Join t.me/OnyxBirdMedia to follow new ideas, expressions, & multimedia projects by Mara Bird.
Find our public group share chat here: t.me/+jWZ5QxQ3aCpmNzIx
t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/3
Forwarded from Mara Bird
Welcome to my media channel!
I will be sharing what's on my heart and mind, and I hope anything sparks something meaningful to you.
Turning half a century in age has me thinking about all the things I have survived. Some of the pain is just a memory, an old story, a scar. Many wounds are still fresh and the pain is right there on the surface. When I am alone in the dark, I wonder when I cry some nights, how my life would have been different, better by having been born white or a boy or straight. Or if I had been born to mature, non-traumatized people with a strong support system and a clue about nurturing parenting. I would have better memories to fall back on, to stand on, to be warmed by, to gain strength from, to pass on to my child.
My life so far nearly broke me, and I am honestly surprised to be alive today. I wanted to quit so many times because I didn't think I could bear any longer the pain of loneliness or the darkness, the "abyss of lovelessness" that I felt and feel regularly. I have thought of ending my life more times than I can count, but the fact that I'm here means I'm meant to be here. I'm choosing to hold on to that.
I had hoped that turning 50 would magically make everything better, that I would just stop giving a shit, that my heart would be mended and encased in a protective shell of elder's wisdom. Maybe that will come.
For now, though, I feel the need, an urgency, to share who I am, no matter how I am received because I know there is some good in me, and maybe someone would like to know me. I have dreams and wishes that I want to see happen, and maybe there are people who would be able and glad to help them come true.
Someone once said, "Take your broken heart make it into art."
This is me, my heart, my art. These ideas and projects that have come to me over the years and have not left me feel like my life work. The things I have survived make me feel that anything is possible. I believe that is true, especially when there is and loving support, kind words, and people believing in me and in what we can do together.
I will be sharing what's on my heart and mind, and I hope anything sparks something meaningful to you.
Turning half a century in age has me thinking about all the things I have survived. Some of the pain is just a memory, an old story, a scar. Many wounds are still fresh and the pain is right there on the surface. When I am alone in the dark, I wonder when I cry some nights, how my life would have been different, better by having been born white or a boy or straight. Or if I had been born to mature, non-traumatized people with a strong support system and a clue about nurturing parenting. I would have better memories to fall back on, to stand on, to be warmed by, to gain strength from, to pass on to my child.
My life so far nearly broke me, and I am honestly surprised to be alive today. I wanted to quit so many times because I didn't think I could bear any longer the pain of loneliness or the darkness, the "abyss of lovelessness" that I felt and feel regularly. I have thought of ending my life more times than I can count, but the fact that I'm here means I'm meant to be here. I'm choosing to hold on to that.
I had hoped that turning 50 would magically make everything better, that I would just stop giving a shit, that my heart would be mended and encased in a protective shell of elder's wisdom. Maybe that will come.
For now, though, I feel the need, an urgency, to share who I am, no matter how I am received because I know there is some good in me, and maybe someone would like to know me. I have dreams and wishes that I want to see happen, and maybe there are people who would be able and glad to help them come true.
Someone once said, "Take your broken heart make it into art."
This is me, my heart, my art. These ideas and projects that have come to me over the years and have not left me feel like my life work. The things I have survived make me feel that anything is possible. I believe that is true, especially when there is and loving support, kind words, and people believing in me and in what we can do together.
In October 2021, Max Morris wrote:
' My friend Mara takes beautiful photographs. As part of our Intuitive community projects, we have been compiling her photography to share it with others.
She went for a walk on her birthday, October 28th, taking pictures. Since then, she has been filling our group space with beautiful images of brightly colored Autumn leaves from Kindness, Colorado.
This is part of the development of Mara's heart projects, including Kindness Caravan and Make Peace Life School. Synthesizing these efforts, in October 2021 we launched Denver IPR as a regional outpost of Intuitive Public Radio to assist in coordinating safe refuges and inclusive resourcing for youth and adult survivors of hardship, invisible violence, and human trafficking.
We're excited about projects we are coordinating with Intuitive Social Learning and other survivor-led platforms that are benefiting from Mara's awesome community ethic, care, and vibration.
We are organizing this particularly wonderful Autumn-in-Denver photography by Mara Bird as a thank you for resources donated to our lifesaving initiatives. If you are able to offer a small financial gift, we would like to send you this bundle of 36 beautiful full-color images. '
Read more: intuitivepr.gumroad.com/l/AutumnResilienceKindnessColorado
t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/6
' My friend Mara takes beautiful photographs. As part of our Intuitive community projects, we have been compiling her photography to share it with others.
She went for a walk on her birthday, October 28th, taking pictures. Since then, she has been filling our group space with beautiful images of brightly colored Autumn leaves from Kindness, Colorado.
This is part of the development of Mara's heart projects, including Kindness Caravan and Make Peace Life School. Synthesizing these efforts, in October 2021 we launched Denver IPR as a regional outpost of Intuitive Public Radio to assist in coordinating safe refuges and inclusive resourcing for youth and adult survivors of hardship, invisible violence, and human trafficking.
We're excited about projects we are coordinating with Intuitive Social Learning and other survivor-led platforms that are benefiting from Mara's awesome community ethic, care, and vibration.
We are organizing this particularly wonderful Autumn-in-Denver photography by Mara Bird as a thank you for resources donated to our lifesaving initiatives. If you are able to offer a small financial gift, we would like to send you this bundle of 36 beautiful full-color images. '
Read more: intuitivepr.gumroad.com/l/AutumnResilienceKindnessColorado
t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/6
Gumroad
Gallery: Autumn Resilience in Kindness Colorado
Max writes:My friend Mara takes beautiful photographs. As part of our Intuitive community projects, we have been compiling her photography to share it with others. She went for a walk on her birthd...
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The world is speaking. How can we always be listening?
Matriarch Farmsteads & Mobile Living Spaces in Denver, Colorado creates access to safe community resourcing: Water, Food, Shelter, Transportation, Community.
Matriarch Farmsteads is a Black woman-owned community enterprise in the business of helping humanity to live, to survive, & to thrive in respect & care for our Mother Earth.
Matriarch is founded by Mara Bird, creator of @OnyxBirdMedia, @MakePeaceLifeschool, & @KindnessCaravan, & contributor to projects across this @IntuitivePublicRadio.
Support & co-create joyful solutions with us by tuning to our public chat: t.me/+jWZ5QxQ3aCpmNzIx
Videography by Mara Bird.
Share funds: cash.app/$BirdMara
We are celebrating living, loving, & learning -- growing strong communities. Explore more art, photography, & opportunities to participate: t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/6
t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/7
Matriarch Farmsteads & Mobile Living Spaces in Denver, Colorado creates access to safe community resourcing: Water, Food, Shelter, Transportation, Community.
Matriarch Farmsteads is a Black woman-owned community enterprise in the business of helping humanity to live, to survive, & to thrive in respect & care for our Mother Earth.
Matriarch is founded by Mara Bird, creator of @OnyxBirdMedia, @MakePeaceLifeschool, & @KindnessCaravan, & contributor to projects across this @IntuitivePublicRadio.
Support & co-create joyful solutions with us by tuning to our public chat: t.me/+jWZ5QxQ3aCpmNzIx
Videography by Mara Bird.
Share funds: cash.app/$BirdMara
We are celebrating living, loving, & learning -- growing strong communities. Explore more art, photography, & opportunities to participate: t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/6
t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/7
My 50th Birthday Wish: I have gone 50 times around the Sun! that's incredible to me! So much of the time, didn't know if I was going to make it. So many times, honestly, I didn't want to make it. But I survived.
Read more: t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/9
Photography by Onyx Bird Media
t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/8
Read more: t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/9
Photography by Onyx Bird Media
t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/8
My 50th Birthday Wish
I have gone 50 times around the Sun! That's incredible to me! So much of the time, didn't know if I was going to make it. So many times, honestly, I didn't want to make it.
But I survived.
Thank you to good people, friends, family, and therapy.
Through all these fifty years I have struggled mightily with feeling loved and cared about. As a non-man person who is a Black descendant of enslaved people, also queer and neurodivergent, I identify with many groups of people who have experienced hate, oppression, subjugation, mistreatment, disgust, and disregard. It took me a while (my whole life this far plus almost 11 months of weekly therapy) to come to terms with the fact that I am smack in the intersection of the human chaos of inhumanity. And that because I can relate, I can say something. I can do something.
And 50 feels like the right time to do it.
I lost my house during the pandemic. I'm not gonna say it was shady (Walsenburgers, IYKYK), but as a veteran, (shafted by a change in the GI Bill) traumatized by the things that happened in my life in the past, from before me and in my DNA to now, I need this world to NOT BE the kind of place to let any person be without a home. But also, I paid for mine in full.
Anyway, it's gone. And I can relate to those who have lost heir homes. I still tear up (I miss the books I couldn't keep 🥹). Loss is a huge part of being alive.
Because I can relate to being so sad and sick and depressed oh so lonely much of the time and rendered mute and paralyzed with fear about saying or doing anything that would shake my peace. Because "what's the use?🙄 The world is just shit anyway," they say in a bored tone. It makes me sicker when people want to just accept "that's just the way things are.🙄" And they scoff when I mention that I believe Peace is possible.
Sick but alive in spite of it all, I am hopeful for the future. And it's time to get to work!
For the past 8 years or so, I have been making a lot of notes on how things could be better for ALL people when people who are suffering and in need — children and young people and disabled people — have their needs met and are WELL.
I left teaching because of some of the things I've seen, how children are treated and mistreated. How can we still not know that children are the future?! (Yes, sing the song in your head!)!
I have had a vision of something more focused on total wellness and humanity with purpose and joy.
I have started a channel on Telegram. It will contain my dreams, my vision, my notes, my art, and it is totally interactive.
***MY WISH is that you will check it out, talk with me there about it, and share widely with people you think may be interested in any of the projects and art.
You can subscribe to it here: t.me/OnyxBirdMedia
And you can join our chat here: t.me/+DsG1vfnSasJiZjEx
My 50s will be about turning dreams into reality. I would love for you all to be a part of these happenings 😃
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
If you're interested in my birthday list of tangible items, even just to see what I'm into, here it is: amazon.com/hz/wishlist/dl/invite/akb049x?ref_=wl_share
Artwork: t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/8
t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/9
I have gone 50 times around the Sun! That's incredible to me! So much of the time, didn't know if I was going to make it. So many times, honestly, I didn't want to make it.
But I survived.
Thank you to good people, friends, family, and therapy.
Through all these fifty years I have struggled mightily with feeling loved and cared about. As a non-man person who is a Black descendant of enslaved people, also queer and neurodivergent, I identify with many groups of people who have experienced hate, oppression, subjugation, mistreatment, disgust, and disregard. It took me a while (my whole life this far plus almost 11 months of weekly therapy) to come to terms with the fact that I am smack in the intersection of the human chaos of inhumanity. And that because I can relate, I can say something. I can do something.
And 50 feels like the right time to do it.
I lost my house during the pandemic. I'm not gonna say it was shady (Walsenburgers, IYKYK), but as a veteran, (shafted by a change in the GI Bill) traumatized by the things that happened in my life in the past, from before me and in my DNA to now, I need this world to NOT BE the kind of place to let any person be without a home. But also, I paid for mine in full.
Anyway, it's gone. And I can relate to those who have lost heir homes. I still tear up (I miss the books I couldn't keep 🥹). Loss is a huge part of being alive.
Because I can relate to being so sad and sick and depressed oh so lonely much of the time and rendered mute and paralyzed with fear about saying or doing anything that would shake my peace. Because "what's the use?🙄 The world is just shit anyway," they say in a bored tone. It makes me sicker when people want to just accept "that's just the way things are.🙄" And they scoff when I mention that I believe Peace is possible.
Sick but alive in spite of it all, I am hopeful for the future. And it's time to get to work!
For the past 8 years or so, I have been making a lot of notes on how things could be better for ALL people when people who are suffering and in need — children and young people and disabled people — have their needs met and are WELL.
I left teaching because of some of the things I've seen, how children are treated and mistreated. How can we still not know that children are the future?! (Yes, sing the song in your head!)!
I have had a vision of something more focused on total wellness and humanity with purpose and joy.
I have started a channel on Telegram. It will contain my dreams, my vision, my notes, my art, and it is totally interactive.
***MY WISH is that you will check it out, talk with me there about it, and share widely with people you think may be interested in any of the projects and art.
You can subscribe to it here: t.me/OnyxBirdMedia
And you can join our chat here: t.me/+DsG1vfnSasJiZjEx
My 50s will be about turning dreams into reality. I would love for you all to be a part of these happenings 😃
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
If you're interested in my birthday list of tangible items, even just to see what I'm into, here it is: amazon.com/hz/wishlist/dl/invite/akb049x?ref_=wl_share
Artwork: t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/8
t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/9
Telegram
🔊 @OnyxBirdMedia • Notes, Dreams, & Experiences • Onyx Bird Media
My 50th Birthday Wish: I have gone 50 times around the Sun! that's incredible to me! So much of the time, didn't know if I was going to make it. So many times, honestly, I didn't want to make it. But I survived.
Read more: t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/9
Photography…
Read more: t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/9
Photography…
My 50th Birthday Wish:
"I have had a vision of something more focused on total wellness and humanity with purpose and joy.
I have started a channel on Telegram. It will contain my dreams, my vision, my notes, my art, and it is totally interactive.
MY WISH is that you will check it out, talk with me there about it, and share widely with people you think may be interested in any of the projects and art."
Read more: t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/9
Mara Onyx Bird • t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/10
"I have had a vision of something more focused on total wellness and humanity with purpose and joy.
I have started a channel on Telegram. It will contain my dreams, my vision, my notes, my art, and it is totally interactive.
MY WISH is that you will check it out, talk with me there about it, and share widely with people you think may be interested in any of the projects and art."
Read more: t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/9
Mara Onyx Bird • t.me/OnyxBirdMedia/10
Thank you for your kindness and support 😊❤️