#you deserve joy

[lifeonkylesfarm]

hey, hey

you don't need to rush. you don't need to.

it's okay.

i promise.

you have time.

you have time

and you deserve to rest.

[ashes-and-ruins]

this morning it was raining when i woke up. i took a hot shower. i let the water wash away the tear stains on my cheeks, the grease in my hair, and the ache in my bones.

then i made a cup of tea. i used my favorite mug and added just the right amount of milk. i put on my favorite sweatshirt and sat in my most comfortable chair.

i invited my pain in, offered it a cup as well. we sat together in silence, until i told it, “i know you are a part of me. you always have been. and i know you always will be. but there will come a day where your part dwindles, where joy starts to take over again. right now, you are the leading factor; i respect you and i understand why, but i also need you to know that i am not fighting you. i will let you stay as long as you need to. but when it is your time to go, i will gladly walk you to the door.”

when we were done, i didn’t feel better… but there was something else blooming inside of me. something that had withered out long ago.

hope.

[graspthechance-blog]

Silliness is joy in the moment. This is absolutely true.

PSA:

1. If you are not silly, it is vital you become silly

2. If you are silly, you must stay silly

2. If you used to be silly but have stopped, you must make all efforts to return to silliness

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The math just adds up!

[secretthoughtsofashootingstar]

Muddy Water

If you are wandering through a desert, parched and sun-scorched, your base line for what is considered acceptable changes greatly. Eventually even putrid, foul smelling water begins to look desirable. If you had been without water for long enough, you would be glad to drink from a muddy stream beside the animals. Nevermind the risk of parasites or disease, all that matters is that it is water.

Similarly, when you go too long without drinking the spiritual water that flows from the scriptures, even muddy water seems tempting. You become desperate to feel loved and wanted, not realizing all the while that you already are. When you start feeling empty and restless, you turn to cheap solutions for a quick fix. It doesn’t even have to fix the problem, it just has to numb the pain of your hollow existence for a little bit. You turn to social media, you turn to pornography, you turn to needles. Slowly you become a shell of yourself. You’re too tired to go out, but you’re too tired to sleep. 

Logically you know what the problem is. As you raise handful after handful of muddy water to your face, you know that it’s slowly poisoning you, hollowing you out from the inside. You catch your reflection in the putrid puddle, and your eyes are sunken and your cheeks hollow. Parasites from the water leach your strength. But anything is better than the scorching pain of your dry throat. 

You tell yourself it’s a guilty pleasure. You tell yourself you’ll stop tomorrow. But the truth is that it’s not a pleasure, it’s a survival tactic. To your credit, you hide it well. You go to school, you go to work, you may even chat with friends or acquaintances, and no one knows. No one can see how badly you are hurting. No one sees how sick you really are. The realization makes your throat burn and your eyes sting, and the next time you are alone you drink more of the muddy water to numb the pain. 

Then one day, as you sit in your desert beneath the burning sun, you feel a tap on your shoulder. You turn to see a man offering you a pitcher of water. It’s not the rancid, murky water that you’ve grown accustomed to drinking – it is cold and clear and refreshing. Strength and new life fills your limbs as you drink it, and you realize that it soothes the ache in your heart that the muddy water could never quite reach. 

As you turn to thank the man, you notice his sun-beaten skin and blistered feet, as well as his kind eyes and bright smile. You realize that he crossed this desert to find you, and suddenly it occurs to you that the muddy water was never the only option. As I stood on the bank of that muddy stream, I realized that I never wanted to go back to the life I had before. The foul, muddy water no longer held any appeal, because I had tasted the living water that quenched every ache inside me. Whenever I am tempted to turn back to the muddy water, even to take a sip, I picture my Savior standing beside the stream, offering the cool, clear water that he sacrificed so much to bring me.

Jesus Christ offers living water than makes the muddy water seem distasteful.

[witless-winion1]

ignoring Mr Jalpeño’s blatant Good Boy erasure

imagine Argos fucking hates the suitors. He senses the bad vibes and he growls and snaps at them at every opportunity. Several of the suitors have scars from being ‘nipped’.

imagine Odysseus disguising himself as a suitor, sneaking around, stealing weapons, and blending in with the other assholes during Hold Them Down

now imagine our favorite puppo making that super hard because he sees his master!! His owner is home, he hasn’t seen Ody since he was a puppy!! And now he’s old and slow but he’s damn happy to see his master, whether he looks homeless and is very stinky or not

imagine some of the other suitors wondering why the old king’s dog seems to like This One Rando so much, that he’s dancing around his legs like a fool, licking his scarred hands and sniffing his cloak obsessively, even as said Rando Suitor is trying to push him away between head pats

[stil-lindigo]

warmth.

a comic about not being alone.

--

creative notes:

--

all my other comics

store

[thepeacefulgarden]

[lifeonkylesfarm]

if you think your body is unloveable because of your "flaws" I am here to tell you that is simply untrue. My boyfriend is the most beautiful man I have ever seen and he has stretch marks and I love his stretch marks and his back is covered in eczema and I love his back and his scratchy bits and he has a weird toe on his left foot that attaches to his foot lower than his other toes and I love his weird little toe and his belly button is strange looking because they went through it when he had his appendix removed and I love his belly button. I know he's insecure about a lot of things that I don't even know about and I can't even notice them because to me he's just perfect. he's just perfect. and his "flaws" make him better, I think. someone out there will feel the same way about your body. hopefully you can even feel that way about your own body.

[marijinx]

You deserve more than half-hearted love

more than uncertainty

you deserve a feast

not crumbs of affection.

[inkskinned]

today i love the red metal crane in her long neck arching her body over the boston skyline, which means i am okay for a moment. when i am unwell, everything is a little ugly. i always tell myself look for the beauty but when it is bad, i will look at birds and sunsets and little ducklings and feel absolutely nothing.

when my brother got his puppy, i was in a deep depression. what kind of monster isn't affected by a puppy. i was gentle and kind to her - i just didn't have an emotional reaction. she's five now and i feel like i spend all of our interactions apologizing to her - i don't know why. i just didn't feel anything. how embarrassing. i feel like if i admit that, i'll seem cruel and jaded. it comes in waves. like, two months ago when i went out into the world - it was like that. life behind a pane of stormglass. a firework could go off over your head - nothing. like dead skin, no reaction. not to ice cream or rainbows or baby chickens. life foggy and uninteresting.

i love goslings again. i love their little webbed feet splayed over grass. i love good food and live music and long walks. i like puppies. i feel like some kind of my soul has been starved - i keep staring at everything with wide eyes, trying to burrow the sensation into my stomach. it's real. beauty is real. when it's bad again, remember this. i stop and smell the flowers, feeling cliche in the moment. i like the white-to-red ombre of my neighbor's roses. i like colorcoding and yoga and cold drinks. i try to pass my hands over every moment, feeling like i'm squeezing joy out of every instant. remember this. for the love of god, it's real - just remember this.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The indescribable tension between an overworked and underpaid smut writer, and his biggest fan hater.

(for @frummpets)

[secretthoughtsofashootingstar]

Daily Reminder: Don’t wait for the hard times to pass to be happy.

[saydesole]

You deserve a beautiful love story

[nonranghaes]

[happy birthday @thepixelelf ily!!]

"oh, right--" seungcheol pushes your legs off from where you've draped them over his lap. "i bought something for you. let me get it."

you shoot him a curious look as he's getting up. he bought something else for you? he's already spoiled you a lot today between the cute novelty earrings he found for you and the dinner he treated you to... what else could he possibly be hiding now? right as you go to lovingly nag him, he disappears into your bedroom and tells you to just let him spoil you while he's here.

and then when he comes back, its with a bag he must have stashed there earlier when you weren't looking. he hands it over to you, smiling as he parks himself on the couch. "happy birthday," he says for maybe the millionth time today. when you don't move to open it quite yet, he nods toward it. "look and see! you'll like it, i promise."

you push through the tissue paper to find a soft, brown bear plushie dressed in gingham overalls and a sweater that has a cherry pattern on it. when you look up, he's already holding out his phone to reveal a picture of himself with an identical one--although this one is wearing a sweater of your favorite color underneath its overalls.

"i was only going to buy one for you, but i felt bad separating them," he admits, cheeks already turning red as he averts his gaze. he meets your eyes a moment later though, those cute dimples showing as he smiles at you. "so? is this too much?"

"nope." you just lean in to kiss one of those dimples. "you're such a dork."

and he complains, because he's your seungcheol who always complains a little when you tease him, but he knows its true. he's your soft, loving dork just as much as you're his.

[cheese-water]

Generation Loss is a comedic tragedy in every sense of the word. Every character we see exemplifies this fact, but no one other than The Austin Show proves its truth.

We begin at the carousel. Austin, Gay, takes his turn by pleading for himself to live because he has a wife and children back home. The rest of the cast interrogates him about his “wife and kids,” clearly suspicious of his truthfulness without even knowing his dubbed “title.” Everyone in the room treats Austin like a joke.

In turn, so do we.

Next, we reach the closet and shortly after the failed drag show, Austin remarks, “Look, I uh… I didn’t expect to die here.” It’s a moment of pure honesty, whether we like it or not. It happens again when the Puzzler tries to party with them, and Austin has to angrily remind him that they are his captives and are actively trying to kill them.

Austin: “What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? We're trying to get out of here. I have children and wives— wife. One wife! What is this some sort of game? I’ve been stuck in hear for hours it seems. We’re trying to get out. Why is nobody else freaking out? We’ve got C4 strapped to our neck…”

It isn’t until Ethan’s death, his blood pooling out from underneath the door, Austin screaming at the others, begging them to have a reaction, to care about their circumstances, to care about death, that we finally understand Austin’s role in Generation Loss.

After all, in every great comedy, someone always has to play the straight man.