Different than what you would expect

As a medium, you have a different relationship to the spirits than most people. It's like you have a connection that's always available between yourself and the spirits.  Not that the connection is always busy or anything, but it's just there. The comparison they make is that it's like when leave your email software running on your PC while you are doing other things on it. Since it's always running, you could get mail at any time (or send one for that matter), but that doesn't mean that it's constantly busy. Just a connection. A little more than a year ago, I suddenly started to paint. I hadn't done anything since grade-school, and I wasn't good at it then, so my current art work is pretty grade-school. But no matter, because it's fun to do, and that's the main point. Some friends asked me to post some of it, and after I did, one of them asked me if I could do something on the 9/11 tragedy. I didn't say much about it, but went out and did a bunch of research. I learned about the Trade Center buildings, the construction, the devastation, the conspiracy theories, all kinds of things. I looked at a lot of pictures, and now I can name several buildings around the towers at a quick glance. I discovered that there was an itty-bitty little church in front of the towers which was built long ago and perished in the disaster. Somewhere in the middle of all this learning and research, I got something in my "inbox" about events such as 9/11. It said that events such as these happen the way they do for a reason, they teach lessons. All the people involved died the way they were supposed to, and all was accounted for. I replied back, asking what the lessons were, but got a bounce message in return. That happens sometimes; you discover that the "email" in your inbox is valid and isn't spam, but it just doesn't have a from-address that works. I got another note instead, that the people whom we call victims, when looked at from the grander perspective that the spirits have, are actually volunteers. They volunteered. I've heard of this type of thing before, but it still blows my mind to hear it again. I can't imagine sitting somewhere in the spirit worlds and deciding that I'm going to incarnate on the Earth for a bit and have my life end that way, because there's some value in doing so, and it's only one life of many. Pretty interesting to think about. Certainly nothing that most of us here on the Earth plane would consider as a good way, or even the best way to do things. I can't imagine volunteering for such a thing, and have high regard and respect for those who have done so. My understanding is that the goal was for us to learn and grow; I dearly hope that their "volunteer work" was successful in that regard, and we have learned the things from it that we should. So I went about my research, then went to paint. I use acrylic paint (which is water based) on canvas panels. I painted one picture, and it came out, well, "ok". Every time I go to paint, it's an experiment of some kind. This one was an experiment with using pencil to block-in the buildings and things before using the paint. It was all right, but doubt I'll use pencil for that again, as it bleeds through, particularly on lighter colors. I got an oil paint starter kit for my birthday earlier in the year, and decided it was time to experiment with it before trying another 9/11 scene. I tried a couple of landscapes with it, as I've watched Bob Ross, a master of landscapes in oil, do so many times on his show. Working with the paint and trying some of his technique, I could see the value of it, but in the end, I hated working with it. It's like painting with peanut butter, the clean up requires thinner instead of water, and a painting takes many days to dry. I made a decision to not work with oil. Suddenly I got a note in my inbox, saying that the decision I made would not shorten my life span. It went on to say that life is X amount of time to start with, and if I had decided to work with oils for the rest of my life, my life would be then be shorter than X by some amount of time because of the choice I made. The chemicals in thinner, and probably in the paint as well, aren't good for you with prolonged exposure, and a lifetime of working with it would be exactly that - prolonged exposure. I went on to think about Bob Ross. On one of his shows, he said he painted 20,000-30,000 paintings. He also died young, at 53, of cancer. I'm no doctor, but I would say that prolonged exposure to paint thinner probably caused his cancer. Bob has done more to interest people in doing art work more than anyone else probably ever has. I replied back, asking about whether Bob volunteered to incarnate and have a shorter life due to the oils because the value of  getting interesting people in art was worth it. I didn't get a reply, but I'm not surprised. If I could answer the question for him, I would say yes, I wouldn't be surprised if he did. One never really knows why people choose the Earth planes lives they do. Whether it's as emotionally charged as being an 9/11 victim or as neutral as being a master of painting landscapes in oil, it's interesting to think about, and to be appreciative of what these people have done.