🎉✌️ I Set a Kind and Firm Boundary Today

That's all, folks. I set a boundary!!! Let's celebrate?

Hi, I’m Leah. And today…I set a boundary. 🎉

With a corporate Karen. The kind who used to bully me.

And I’m feeling like a boss. A peaceful one. A kind one. THE ONE.

Here’s the boundary I set: in full. For context. For high fives. For respect.

Good morning, thank you for your patience with my response. Henry is doing well this morning and he has been walked and fed and is resting. Before we continue the conversation, I want to note that I did send an update on Henry earlier in the day yesterday after returning from parking my car. The rest of my day was focused on caring for my own needs, seeing patients, and tending to my business—while also ensuring Henry was well cared for. This is a typical rhythm for the first day of a sit, when I’m getting oriented and settled in. I understand your desire for regular check-ins, and I apologized for the oversight, but I believe it’s fair and reasonable to expect some flexibility—especially on day one of a sit. I also want to be clear moving forward. I am not your employee—I am a guest in your home, as per the Trusted Housesitters model of mutual exchange, and I appreciate your grace in holding space for my needs as well as your own. I’m willing to continue with this sit as agreed and provide daily updates between 12–5, but from this point forward I need a dynamic grounded in trust, respectful communication, kindness, and consideration. If you feel my request is unreasonable or does not meet your needs, I’d prefer that you find a different arrangement. Thanks, Leah

BOOM 💥💅

And you know what else, guys?

Something about setting that boundary with her, asserting my needs, holding my own, and taking back my power while regulating my nervous system throughout a highly charged and threatening situation– it changed something in me forever.

I’ve never stayed with myself like that before.

Through the night, shaking and breathing on the bathroom floor, because I was literally that girl again. Walking through the worst fire of my life. But I stayed with myself through it!! I didn’t collapse. I didn’t grovel in submission. I didn’t even cry.

Not this time. NO.

Instead, I pulled up a ChatGPT thread when the cortisol spike woke me up at 3:00am and wouldn’t let me go back to sleep and drafted my response. I covered my ass by documenting a paper trail of communication. I asked God to send his angels. And then, I took a CBD gummy to relax my mind and tried to reclaim some of my rest (she literally woke me up from a nap with her demands). I would send it in the morning.

In the morning, I woke up still trembling a bit and completely exhausted. I debated if I wanted to soften my stance, but instead I grounded my feet into the Earth, took several deep breaths, and hit send on that text.

Afterwards, I made myself some tea to deal with the nausea because I literally couldn’t eat anything, and prepared to see my first patient of the day.

I was so proud, I texted Daryl to tell him. After all, it was him who held my lifeless frame the first time I got devoured by a ruthless horde of corporate hyenas. He dropped a fire emoji. 🔥 I sent a screenshot to the group text. They cheered me on.

I am so proud, I have a pep in my step. Not even joking. Because the thing is…I’ve never stood up to this kind of bully before and had them respect my line.

I’ve never had them not keep fucking around with the goal of finding out. Not keep threatening me to the point of submission. Not keep on treating me as if I didn’t deserve basic humanity and dignity. You know the type, right?

The one on the relentless power trip, with a raging sense of entitlement, disconnected from their own humanity, in an unhealthy relationship with control, following Tony Robbins like his word is gospel, and thinking everyone but them is the help?

Yup, that one.

I, Leah Joet Tarleton, stood up in the face of that final boss energy and handed it the sweetest and deadliest slice of the humble pie her ego didn’t even know it needed, but her heart and soul craved. AND, this time, instead of slapping back, she stepped off. Begrudgingly, yes. But nonetheless. She was the one to feel the final burn. Not me.

And you guys, it’s like healing a really old professional wound form my first job.

The one from being treated like absolute shit by women like that. The one from getting literally traumatized by dirty office politics and senseless power plays that my undiagnosed AuDHD neurodivergent brain literally just couldn’t wrap itself around. The one from having my softness seen as submission, my sensitivity mistaken for weakness, my kindness preyed on for being vulnerable.

The wound from the entire system coming down on me and using me as a scapegoat for their own shameful behavior just because they could. Just because I didn’t know how to stop it. Well who’s laughing now? Seriously, what is wrong with these people? Who do they think they are? Don’t they know it’s not smart to be unkind?

I won’t play into their playbook. I will always set a boundary. Because a soul like mine never wanted to play by that awful set of rules: the kind where hurt people hurt each other just because they can. No, a soul like mine plays by God’s rule: truth and love.

So, you can just miss me with that BS.

You can just miss my hard-earned discernment, my self-respect, my self-worth, my deep backbone, my connection to sprit, my leadership qualities, my good ideas, and this super deep well of courage underneath all this beautiful softness.

So anyways, I set a boundary today.

Just thought you all should know.

Love,

Leah

PS. Stay Soft, Stay Strong, my friends (and don’t take no shit).