Lemons to Lemonade, my life in a short comic strip

I've never drawn anything as a comic but decided to give it a try—to be brave, move forward, out of my perfectionism, and into exploration and play. Sometimes play is hard!

This is about a yucky time in my life and how, in the middle of it, I joined the Equine Gestalt Coaching Method program. I had a couple people in my life who believed what I was telling them, thank you Michael and Laura! And then, suddenly I had more. When I went into my first coaching training, I was surrounded by a large group of  women who heard me and believed me, even though they didn't know me. It was the most incredible gift. When I told them we were being abused by my daughter and I didn't know what to do—they helped by listening and pulling me up out of the muck. I always felt I could go on after a training.

They surrounded me with love and light. Eventually we moved to the ranch and I began finding the gifts in all of those lemons—pressed them down and turned them into lemonade.

I became an Equine Gestalt Coach myself and passed the love on—listening and believing others who came to me from traumatic backgrounds of all kinds.

When I finished this strip, I sat on it for awhile. Loving some parts and beating myself up about others. Lord. I can be so tough on myself sometimes! Finally I decided to give myself a freaking break! Take the advice I often give to others in my Women's Connection & Creativity Workshops and breathe and allow it to be out in the world. There is no such thing as perfect!

And hey! Remember how I talked about sketching in pen and how it's just important to get the idea down?

I wanted to show you what this looked like coming out of my head:

I decided I wanted to play with this idea. So, I bought something new—watercolor markers with a brush tip, pretty fun to play with!

I have to say, I think I'll practice this way of storytelling more. It was pretty fun! I realized along the way that I liked the look of it better without the paper being covered with color and that makes creating it a faster process. I have a much better appreciation of comic strip artists too ;-)

Love to all from the Mother Ranch,

Julia

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