Dear %$firstname$%, With relatives coming for our daughter's graduation, my husband and I became motivated to complete a room renovation and switch his office, gaining me a beautiful expansion of my studio. Woo-wee! Lots of intense labor, and I am so greatly relieved to accomplish this major project and re-purposing of our spaces, which I have been visualizing for several months. Compared to the anticipation and procrastination, it's amazing how little time it actually takes to move mountains. Oh my gosh, that means I have to tell you a story. Recently I met a woman helping out at her kids' school. A few questions later, I determined that she has nine children, most of them adopted, works, volunteers, and has been doing her own home renovations in preparation for her future and the caregiving of her parents. And she was offering to come help me paint our room. "You've gotta be kidding. I don't understand - how on Earth do you do it all?" I asked. "It takes me days to even think about some of these projects." She said, "That's the thing. I don't think, I just dive in." Well, that was enlightening! So this week while consumed with our project I did take a small painting another step (although not done). It is called "Empowering Others." (18"Hx24"W) Empowering others is true service. Being of service is considered an important aspect of many religions. But I've been wondering. How do you know whether you actually are being of service or not? Today's question for our I Listen to Spirit Blog is on: Judging Our Service. Dear Guides, Can we judge whether we are being of true service by interpreting people's reactions? Or is that the wrong measurement system? Excerpt from Minda Bernstein's channeling on 5.18.2010: Dear Ones, "You are living in a world of reflections. Everywhere you go, you see images of yourselves reflected back to you, giving you that perspective of how you appear in the world. "In fact, most of you have a certain fascination with discovering all the permutations of how you appear, how you fit in, how others think of you, view you, like or love you, admire you, respect you, how they see you fitting into the big picture. "No wonder it is fascinating to you, because part of the reason you are on Earth in the first place is so God can see Him/Herself, to put it into one type of language, or so the Great can experience the many or so the Whole can enjoy all the parts which together make the sum of the whole. "Given this backdrop, you can understand and have compassion for your desire to always examine this phenomenon: how you fit in to the greater picture. It is a wholesome and natural question. "Where it can befuddle you and become detrimental to you, out of proportion, is when you begin adjusting your own actions and feelings about yourselves based on how you judge these reflections from the outside. . . . "When you find yourself questioning whether you are on the right track, achieving what you intend - especially with a service which aims to help someone else - be very aware and open to the possibility that you may receive inner feedback, an inner nudge, as to the value of what is happening. There may be a deeper lesson in this instance that is coming to serve you or both of you, as to what you are to learn from each other, or who is helping whom, or what is the meaning of this interaction or exchange. . . . "There is a lot of room to move, room for error, leeway as you may receive all kinds of reactions and impressions from others. In the end, none of these are hugely important, and if you can remove yourselves from close scrutiny of these kinds of feedback, you will, in fact, be freer in your movement forward. This will feel just a little lighter and more fluid." This answer continues in Minda's “Dear Guides” Journal. For full channeling, please join “Dear Guides” by clicking button at right. Yes - who is helping whom? With love, Julie Julie Bernstein Engelmann Email: julie@julieengelmann.com P.S. We hope you will post your comments on the blog. P.P.S. You are welcome to share this Beauty & Spirit Note with friends! P.P.P.S. Friends, you can sign up yourself at any of the sites below. Julie's artist site: www.JulieEngelmann.com Minda Bernstein's channeling site: I Listen to Spirit Frank Butterfield co-produced with Julie: A Communion of Light: Creating Money The Beauty & Spirit email list is housed securely on the email server of my husband Chip Engelmann's site, www.ChipEFT.com, using his autoresponder program. © 2010 Julie Bernstein Engelmann and Minda Bernstein