The quilter who has almost a million subscribers on You Tube has helped many of us make better quilts. Jenny of Missouri Star Quilt Company has a jovial way of reassuring me that I, too, can handle these bulky intersections. Without her I never would have considered tackling a Lady of the Lake with nine hundred small triangles, and yet I have made two. Her tutorial for the Old Mill pattern is my go-to, and I have finished forty. 

More recently I have been lulled by the voice of Adriene, also on You Tube, as she welcomes me into yoga poses that stretch my limbs. She has thirteen times as many subscribers, which means there are plenty of students on mats getting limber. Her voice is comforting as well, and invites me to try new shapes, even if I look less like a tree and more like a shrub. 

Both women seem to have nailed that ability to invite without shaming, while leaving room for imperfection. When I am listening, I believe I can do this. 

When I go to the gym with Benjamin we both click on the screen that affords us a front row seat on a ride through the Swiss Alps, or the Pacific Coast Highway. I can neither see the face, nor feel the sweat of the person actually doing the pedaling, yet enjoying the view lends me a portion of his or her stamina. 

Wouldn't it be lovely if we all had such gentle voices and images in the background of our daily lives? Someone who knows our intention, and also our flaws, jollying us through the awkward conversations, and mismatched seams in our relationships? A rider who will carry us virtually through switchbacks and vistas? 

I think we do. 

"Perception is nothing else than the speech or thought of the angels who are with person." Secrets of Heaven 5228, Emanuel Swedenborg