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Why do we say “it’s raining cats and dogs”?

It’s one of those phrases most of us have heard our entire lives, but very few people ever stop to question where it came from.

In the first episode of Words We Never Question, an Articulated Illustration segment, we look at the history, theories, and possible origins behind this familiar expression.

Some explanations sound believable. Some are questionable. And in some cases, the exact origin may never be known for certain.

That’s part of what makes language so interesting.

Every phrase has a footprint.

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Where We See Things From Unusual Angles.       buymeacoffee.com/ARTICULATEDILLUSTRATION

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Absolutely. Here’s the Buzzsprout VIDEO description for Tired of Being Strong? in copy-and-paste form:

Tired of Being Strong?

Everybody knows the person who always seems to have it together.

The dependable one.
The strong one.
The person everybody calls when something goes wrong.

But what happens when the strong one gets tired too?

In this episode of Articulated Illustration, we talk about the hidden weight that comes with always being the person everyone depends on—and what happens when you start wondering:

“If I stop checking on everybody else… who checks on me?”

Being strong doesn’t mean you never get tired.
It doesn’t mean you don’t need support.
And it definitely doesn’t mean you have to carry everything alone.

Sometimes strength looks like admitting:

“I need somebody too.”

If you’ve ever felt exhausted from always being the reliable one, this episode is for you.

🎙️ Articulated Illustration
Where We See Things From Unusual Angles

Watch on YouTube and listen on other major podcast platforms.

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Everybody depends on you.

The family. The job. The bills. The decisions. The problems. The people who need support.

But who checks on the person carrying all of that?

In this episode of Articulated Illustration, Dwane Richardson Sr. takes a hard look at what happens when being “the strong one” becomes an identity instead of just a role.

Strength is valuable. Dependability matters. But being strong does not mean you have to become everybody’s solution.

We talk about the hidden exhaustion that comes from always being the person people lean on, the pressure to keep showing up when you’re depleted, and why setting limits doesn’t make you weak.

Sometimes the strongest thing you can do is admit that the load is getting heavy.

If you’ve been carrying more than anybody realizes, this episode is for you.

Articulated Illustration
Where We See Things From Unusual Angles.

Word of the Day: Depletion

Follow the show and share this episode with somebody who’s always carrying everybody else.   buymeacoffee.com/ARTICULATEDILLUSTRATION

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Have you ever looked around and felt like everyone else is making progress while you’re standing still?

New jobs. New houses. New relationships. New opportunities.

And after watching everybody else move forward, you start wondering:

“What’s wrong with me?”

In this episode of Articulated Illustration, we explore what it feels like when the people around you seem to be advancing while your own life feels delayed. Comparison can make you believe you’re behind when your path may simply be unfolding on a different timeline.

There’s another side to that, though.

Sometimes you really are waiting on your season.

And sometimes you’ve stopped moving.

The challenge is knowing the difference.

This episode is about comparison, timing, responsibility, patience, and continuing to move forward without using someone else’s progress as the measuring stick for your life.

You may not be behind.

You may simply be building something that takes longer.

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Where We See Things From Unusual Angles

📺 YouTube: @articulatedillustration

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Ever feel like everybody else is moving while you’re standing still?

In this episode, Dwane Richardson Sr. explores comparison, patience, unseen progress, and the dangerous space between doing the work and finally seeing results.

Today’s Word of the Day is latency — the delay between something happening and the result becoming visible.

Sometimes nothing visible does not mean nothing is happening.

But patience is not passivity. You still have to participate in your own progress.

Articulated Illustration — Where We See Things From Unusual Angles.  buymeacoffee.com/ARTICULATEDILLUSTRATION

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What if people really knew you?

Sometimes the fear of being seen doesn’t look like fear at all.

It looks like saying, “I’m fine.”
Going along with what everybody else wants.
Making the joke before the conversation gets too real.
Giving people the safe, polished version of what you actually think and feel.

In this episode of Articulated Illustration, Dwane Richardson Sr. explores inhibition — the inner restraint that causes us to hold something real back before anyone else gets the chance to see it.

Through the image of a locked room and a comfortable hallway, we examine what happens when protecting ourselves from rejection also makes it harder for other people to truly know us.

And instead of telling you to suddenly reveal everything, this episode offers a much smaller challenge:

Be one notch more honest.

One conversation.
One sentence.
One crack in the door.

Word of the Day: Inhibition

Mic Drop:
“Nobody ever fell in love with a hallway. They fell in love with the room, and you just have to let them find the door.”

Articulated Illustration — Where we see things from unusual angles.

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You ever work what feels like 45 minutes, look at the clock, and realize only eight minutes passed?

Then you do something you love and somehow hours disappear.

Why does time do that?

In this episode of Articulated Illustration, we look at the difference between how time passes and how time feels—and what that difference may reveal about the way we’re spending our lives.

Because time can drag.
Time can fly.

But either way, once it’s gone, you can’t get it back.

Articulated Illustration — Where we see things from unusual angles.

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Some people don’t believe they’re talented until somebody gives them a trophy.

In this episode of Articulated Illustration, we explore a powerful line from Phife Dawg’s verse on A Tribe Called Quest’s 1993 classic “Award Tour”: “I’ll never let a statue tell me how nice I am.”

That “statue” represents more than a Grammy. It represents every award, title, paycheck, platform, possession, or person we allow to become the judge of our value.

What happens when recognition becomes the proof that you’re good enough? And what happens when the recognition never comes?

There are talented actors who never win the biggest award. Musicians who never receive the trophy. High performers who quietly do exceptional work for years without applause. Their lack of recognition doesn’t erase the quality of their work.

Recognition can reveal value to the world. It doesn’t create the value inside you.

The applause is nice. The trophy is nice. The acknowledgment is nice.

But never give a statue the authority to tell you who you are.

Articulated Illustration — where we see things from unusual angles.

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Sometimes we remain in a situation not because we cannot see the warning signs, but because accepting what they mean would require us to make a painful decision.

Using Daniel 5 and the familiar phrase “the writing on the wall,” Dwane Richardson Sr. examines why we keep reaching for an emotional eraser when a repeated pattern has already made the truth clear.

This episode explores denial, delayed decisions, misplaced hope, and the cost of remaining in relationships, jobs, friendships, habits, and environments that no longer serve us—or may eventually place us in pain or danger.

The writing may appear in one moment, but it is usually written by a pattern.

You may not need another sign. You may need the courage to respond to what has already been written.

Articulated Illustration—where we see things from unusual angles.

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Before you carry another bag into the next season of your life, check the tag.

Experience can give us wisdom—but it can also leave us carrying expectations, assumptions, disappointments, and old ways of thinking that no longer belong in the life we're trying to build.

In Check Your Tag: Carry Only Yours, Dwane Richardson Sr. uses his own struggle with expectations to examine a bigger question: How do we tell the difference between wisdom we've gained and baggage we've simply gotten used to carrying?

Not everything from your past needs to be thrown away. But not everything deserves to come with you either.

Some things taught you.

Some things shaped you.

And some things have simply gotten heavy.

Maybe it's time to check the tag.

Articulated Illustration — Where we see things from unusual angles.

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