Hi John!

I'm such a nice guy.

Really!

I love to be loved and I love others to be loved.

But this week I had to establish a boundary.

It was hard. I'll tell you about it in a sec.

DAD JOKE OF THE WEEK

Patient: "Why do I only get sick on weekends?"

Doctor: "You have a weekend immune system."

CARTOON OF THE WEEK

"Drinking Blood"

I must say I have a lot of fun drawing just silly cartoons.

As you know, most of my cartoons deal with serious issues.

But once in a while I give my readers cartoons I hope bring a smile to their face.

Several people told me this made them laugh out loud.

Win win!

Read the Post and Comments

POST OF THE WEEK

DECONSTRUCTION:

So many people resonated with this post. The link to read it all and all the comments is below. This is what I wrote about it when I posted it:

I’m proud of you and I'm glad you're in this community with us. 🧡

Background image: My "The Need to Leave" watercolor print.

This chaos called deconstruction that you're experiencing is the natural progression of your spiritual growth. And when I say "spiritual" I mean your inner growth without necessarily invoking anything supernatural.

You're the driver of your life. You've got the wheel.

Buckle up. Enjoy the ride!

Read the Post

PAINTING OF THE WEEK

"FROM DUSK TO DAWN" (watercolor)

This is a commission drawing I completed. Click on the image to watch a short video of it.

A couple wanted to commission a painting from me, but first they wanted to share their story.

This is what I came up with. You can see them on the shore coming out of the night and facing the sunrise. The moon is even covered with clouds. But there's the bright and morning star. You can also see their four kids symbolized by the four birds in the sunrise.

It's huge for a watercolor: 30"x50". It's going in their dining room. It's going to get a lot of stares and evoke a lot of conversation. I know it!

They absolutely loved it. I ship it out Monday.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW YOUR COMMISSION OPTIONS

HAD TO BLOCK SOMEONE. YOU?

It's easy to give others advice on how to treat people who disrespect your boundaries.

It's another to enact the advice yourself.

I love to be loved and I love others feeling loved to.

This person was innocent. They are just completely unaware of boundaries. There was nothing malicious in this case. Just a lack of awareness.

But it was getting to the point where it was driving me nuts. The stress was unbelievable.

Then I realized: the source of the stress wasn't this person, but me. My stress was rooted in my own inability or unwillingness or fear in establishing my boundary with them.

It took me weeks to establish my boundary and put it in play.

But as soon as I did it I felt relief.

It's easier to do this with malicious boundary-breakers. More difficult with naïve ones.

Here's the question: Who's responsible for my health?

Me!

Have you experienced this?