American Eel At Glen Echo Park In Glen Echo, Maryland

My dad and I once had a disagreement over him using the adage "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

I said, "That's just not true. Sometimes what doesn't kill you leaves you brittle and injured or traumatized."

He stopped and thought about that for a while. He came back later, and said, "It's like wood glue."

He pointed to my bookshelf, which he helped me salvage a while ago. He said, "Do you remember how I explained that, once we used the wood glue on them, the shelves would actually be stronger than they were before they broke?"

I did.

"But before we used the wood glue, those shelves were broken. They couldn't hold up shit. If you had put books on them, they would have collapsed. And that wood glue had to set awhile. If we put anything on them too early, they would have collapsed just the same as if we'd never fixed them at all. You've got to give these things time to set."

It sounded like a pretty good metaphor to me, but one thing I did pick up on was that whatever broke those shelves, that's not the thing that made them stronger. That just broke them. It was being fixed that made them stronger. It was the glue.

So my dad and I agreed, what doesn't kill you doesn't actually make you stronger, but healing does. And if you feel like healing hasn't made you stronger than you were before, you're probably not done healing. You've got to give these things time to set.

‘pierrot and the cat’ - théophile steinlen (1889)

anaquirosa

IT’S GONNA BE YOUR YEAR

[image is a stylised illustration of an orange hare against a teal background, staring directly at the camera with vivid cyan eyes. Its whiskers flare out from his face like the rays of a halo.]

droplets

Another version of my fairy ring mushrooms for Funguary

one of my favorite cards

This is a redraw I did of a painting of dorian gray from last year. I am really happy about my growth. This is from like half a year ago I think? so in a few months already I will hopefully paint it again

Snail Plush Sewing Patterns // Choly Knight