Good boundaries are hard to build. I’m speaking about in our personal lives, but what applies there certainly applies in the big, wide world.
A boundary can be so good it keeps everything out. Everyone. But a boundary that good is suffocating. Because everything and everyone needs to breathe. Otherwise it can’t really be called Life.
But a boundary that lets everything in ain’t a boundary. Or if it lets too much in, it ain’t an effective boundary.
And this is all so important, because everything that matters to us is dependent upon building effective boundaries. Our relationships with each other and in the world. Sometime our own personal sanity, and even our individual and collective survival.
I’ve alway been on the “too welcoming” side of boundary building. I don’t find conflict easy, and historically I haven’t found it easy to say no. This isn’t healthy. It often leads to one kind of collapse or another, in the long run.
Dealing with the boundary issues early on in the process of building anything saves a whole heap of trouble later on. But once the trouble happens, the boundary issues still need to be dealt with.
The truth is Love Has Boundaries.