Dear %$firstname$%, You saved me. I knew it would happen, and it finally has: I wouldn't have worked in the studio this week if it weren't for you! Even I don't want to read the list of excuses - er, reasons - why I was so busy this week. Knowing you were there gave me the flame I needed to take the next step. But when I photographed my painting and saw it on the computer I could tell it was not quite done, so alas I'll show you something else instead. Here is a little visitor that our cat, Sapphire, brought in yesterday. Actually, she brings one in just about every day. But I thought this particular chipmunk came up with a creative solution for its self-preservation. Below, Sapphire is wondering whether it's worth the effort to keep standing guard. By the way, my daughter (when she was 12) sewed that funny-looking stuffed animal behind the cat - it's a Pokemon creature called Togepi. While the chipmunk is fighting for its survival, here is the question. Are you one of those people who make life run like a well-oiled machine for everyone around you? If you are (hint: you know it!), today's I Listen to Spirit Blog is for you: Handling Life's Details. Dear Guides, When it comes to diligence about everyday responsibilities, procedures and schedules, how is it that some people operate with simplicity, somehow enlisting help or getting by, while others see no alternative but to juggle a multitude of details with great effort? Excerpt from Minda Bernstein's channeling on 5.25.2010: Dear Ones, You receive our compassion in the roles you have chosen in a context which appears to run like a watch, full of precision, interlocking gears, dependencies upon sequences and a support system to surround you in order to respond to the various surprises and challenges that arise. It is easy to see how some souls sensitized to this level of order of your world can feel inundated with this kind of an operation which seems to require constant vigilance and alertness. Yes, it seems to demand so much attention just to function on a day-to-day basis that it can easily be overwhelming, stretching the limits of your capabilities. Does it in fact require more than you have to give? Is it up to some people to carry the weight of the system and others more or less get pulled into the jet stream created by them? And what is the role of joy in this scenario? . . . In the ideal, most smooth-running model of the machine of your lives, you are intertwined and some are leaders and others followers in a given situation, then reversing the roles for other types of situations, or with other people and their various expertise and experiences becoming valued and precious for the whole. . . . Here is where you can ask for help on all sides. From us, from the Universe, from the grace of God, from your fellow man. This is perhaps why you or others are in the position to feel much responsibility shunted onto your shoulders - in order to develop this very ability to share the "wealth" and feel the support of others. Look to cultivate the feeling that you are not alone, not overcharged with duties. Aim to see yourself in an interwoven well-functioning system of mutual support. . . . And know that this exact process of encouraging the participation of others is a major challenge and ability that you wish to achieve in this lifetime. Do not gloss over it as a means to an end. No, it is the end in itself. This answer continues in Minda's "Dear Guides" Journal. For full channeling, please join "Dear Guides" by clicking button at right. What a hopeful message for - um, those of us who need it. And, oh! I just now noticed that the painting, which I made simultaneously while Minda was typing her channeling, looks like a watch and gears, just as it says in the first paragraph! Wow. 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'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