If I was a betting woman, I'd head to one of the local casinos here in Arizona. My "luck" from yesterday has carried over to today. It's amazing how small the world actually is and how interconnected we all are — whether we realize it or not. Here's today's "chance" encounters.

Two days ago I received a request for a copy of the stress reduction tips I offer on my web site. The request came from Madeline Starling (she gave me permission to use her name), an award winning Dallas-based artist. Art is something that brings me great joy and I've been a "Business Volunteer for the Arts" here in Arizona as well as a long-time art museum member and attendee both in Arizona and California. I was delighted to send her ideas that would help her feel less stress and more joy, especially concerning whether or not she should continue to paint, even if it didn't generate the money that her family and friends told her she "should" get. (FYI, I'm not a big fan of "shoulds" — either mine or somebody else's.)

After getting my 34 stress reduction tips, Madeline and I started a volley of emails; each more resonate with her than the one that came before. In one of our exchanges, I asked her to think about 2 questions:

1. How about not caring if people like or don't like your work? Don't take rejection personally.
You may not be ready for success...everything is in divine right order.

2. What would happen if you just painted for the sheer joy of it and let the universe decide who should have one or more of your paintings? Think of God as literally holding the paint brush with you and just go with the flow.

Madeline responded with the following words: This is very profound Miss Joanne and deserves deep thinking about it!! To be honest with you, I never thought of this that way. “ God holding the Brush with me” wow that is very profound and very touching!!!

You know –u are right because some of my clients have asked for more artwork after I finished the first canvas for them.

Some have a collection of two or more….and THEY SAY THAT my ART  IS “THEIR HAPPY PLACE” when they get home after a long day at work. Or traveling or meetings or conferences. Or life in general…and I still can’t believe I am doing that!

Madeline and I must have sent each other a dozen emails in the course of the day and she even sent me some .jpg files of her work — which I found to be a picture into her evolving soul.

During one of our exchanges, I asked her how she found my web site since that always fascinates me. She replied,

Well I got to your website from what I believe to be a LOVE CHAIN.

My dear friend Irene Zucker, a motivational public speaker herself had Janet White, another superb motivational speaker as a guest speaker here in Dallas, TX one Saturday morning and by getting her Newsletter last week I saw your website.

And needless-to-say in the precise moment where I needed Spiritual and Emotional help. I needed a Lifeline

Because last week I was thinking about stopping my artworks & my impulsive unknown inspired paintings forever!

When I read Madeline's comments, I knew that by following my intuition I was answering an unspoken prayer for help. I was delighted to be of service. 

Here's the "weird" part. I have never met Janet White in personal but we did exchange two LinkedIn-inspired emails. I'm scheduled to be a guest on her inaugural BlogTalkRadio show on Thursday of this week; where we'll be talking about stress reduction during a job search and how the Law of Attraction may impact whether some one lands or doesn't land a new job.
 
I'm delighted to be in Madeline's "love chain" and know we weren't connected by accident. It wasn't just "by chance."