Dear %$firstname$%, This week I'll start with the blog, because I've got a lot of pictures stretching out below for you artist types. So, I don't suppose you've ever been with someone who didn't exactly like you or support you? Nah, but for the rest of us, today's question for our I Listen to Spirit Blog is on: Being With Someone Resistant. Dear Guides, What is the best way to handle being with someone who is in a bad mood or who doesn't like us or who is angry with us? Excerpt from Minda Bernstein's channeling on 5.31.2010: Dear Ones, "This is a difficult situation you describe, one which challenges your very ability to stay centered in your world. You are always longing for love and acceptance, the reflection of the environment you recall from the realms of soul from whence you came. And feeling alone and unsure of so many pieces of your lives on Earth, you are already so vulnerable to the difficulties. "When this is compounded by being in the presence of negative vibrations it can feel like you are in the wrong experiment, one that is counter-productive and altogether missing the point. "You may wish you could get out of this situation as soon as possible, flee to better conditions and try to re-establish your feelings of belonging and inner stability. And perhaps you can do just that. "But when you find yourselves in these positions . . . and it seems to you that you cannot just separate yourself from the situation, or it doesn't feel right to do so, then this is a moment when you can work on your inner attitude. "Here you can cultivate your inner garden, your inner beauty, regardless of what is going on around you. . . . "For whatever their reasons to sojourn in that less-than-positive energy, it is not beneficial to you to have it creep into your space. It is theirs to choose, live with, learn to transform, and release. You have your own challenges, but dealing with or fixing their energy is not one of them. "You cannot change them, and it is not a constructive use of your intention to do so. However, you can be very clear with yourself that this belongs to them, and not to you. . . . "In fact, there will come a day when your garden will shine in its own beauty regardless of those around you - whether they are negative or positive towards you. You will feel more and more the close support within you and know that the inner well never dries up. That is the greatest truth of all." This answer continues in Minda's “Dear Guides” Journal. For full channeling, please join “Dear Guides” by clicking button at right. What a beautiful and helpful message. My picture above is a little hard to see, but I thought it looks quite like the inner garden described! This week I finished or refinished three paintings in the studio. So I thought I would talk about finishing; good tweaking; and bad tweaking. This is an interesting point that I think any seasoned artist will relate to. For starters, here is my finished painting, "Empowering Others" (18"Hx24"W) that I showed you in an earlier stage two weeks ago. Then last week I realized it still wasn't done. That beige spot on the right was too blank - I wanted it peaceful and empty to contrast with all the activity elsewhere, but it just couldn't hold its corner down. So I added some very "peaceful" activity. That's finishing. Now let's talk about bad tweaking. Really what I mean is, useless attempts at finishing. It took me a long time to identify this syndrome, which perhaps comes from being stingy with starting a new canvas. Sometimes a painting just can't be rescued. You know, it's like a relationship that just isn't the one. You try and try, and finally you realize it's time to cut your losses and move on; you're not getting any younger and you're not opening the door to something new. This painting I showed you before, "Streaming Message," is just lacking. There's nothing really wrong with it, it just lacks inspiration or surprise. So I repainted it, added depth - "tweaked it" - but you can see, the problem just reincarnates itself from the earlier version on the left to the attempted fix on the right. Then there's good tweaking. Sometimes I'm on a roll, and everything I touch turns to gold. That's what happened this week. At times like this, I fix everything in sight. All the tweaking I do just rakes in the gold. Here's Athena, the one I showed you a few weeks ago, along with the new version with added depth around the heart and more coherence on the right. More another time. Meanwhile, happy trails with your own creative being! Oh yes, I'm going to send you an extra email this week with news about Frank Butterfield and the Communion of Light coming for a lovely channeling visit to both Minda's house in Montreal and mine in Indiana, Pennsylvania, in case any of you can make it! I can feel the vortex spinning! 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