The Fox is a super weird mix of very fancy styles, but it’s so much fun to go there. Although, I will send a shout out to my Mom and Dad who made sure we knew to be at concerts 15 minutes head at least and made sure we knew how to be polite in theaters. As Shepard Book says there’s a special place in hell for “people who talk at theaters.” I’ll add people who come in ridiculously late and disrupt the whole show for everyone around them. *glares indignantly at the general public.* We were at the Manheim Steamroller concert just before Christmas for these pictures. Outside of the annoying talkers and late arrivals, it was a lovely concert! There was a harpsichord on stage! I was super jealous of the performer’s dress. K2 and J came, as well as my inlaws and we all sat in a row in three sets of aisle seats.
It’s interesting to write this post about powerful words for a couple different reasons. I’m fascinated by the messages in the pictures for one, but also by how much words can affect our daily life. As an LPC, my entire job is word based, even if the client in question doesn’t know what words to use, or a child who maybe speaks through play instead of vocally. And it’s kind of meta to be writing a blog post about words, even if I know only a few people will read it.
I follow a lot of librarians and indie bookstore owners too on different social media sites (shout out to Bettie’s Pages and Blackstone Books and Cultural Center) and it’s been very interesting to see what has come up during Banned Books Week. Words are important. We should be choosing our words and our time to speak more carefully. Whether you are speaking about something you’re passionate about, something you’re concerned about, or with joy, our words have impacted others more than we know. They also impact our own sense of self and worth.
With that in mind, I’d like to share some more pictures from Meadowbrook Art in the Elements. One of the artists created floral sculptures based on the work of Masaru Emoto who proposes that molecules of water can be affected by our words, thoughts, and feelings. He froze the water and photographed the crystalline formations that he claimed represented each type of thought or sound. While his theory has come under criticism and is reportedly flawed, it still can make us think about the ways we talk to ourselves and others. Whether or not you believe it, the floral sculptures were beautiful and I hope inspire you.
At the end of the exhibit there were two bouquets that you were invited to either write positive or negative messages or words on their vases. I didn’t see the end result of this, as we came on the last day. But here are the bouquets for your viewing.
I hope this has inspired you, even though it may be a silly thing. We are 60% water after all. Speak kindly to yourselves, friends!
“I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me – like food or water.”-Ray Charles
“Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.”-Ludwig van Beethoven
“Nature’s music is never over; her silences are pauses, not conclusions.”-Mary Webb
“I’m obsessed with the countryside: woods, forests, fields, lakes, mountains. I’m really into folk music and folklore. But more so I’m into electronic music. I’m into bands that have both aspects, like Boards of Canada is a perfect example. You could listen to that type of music running through a woods. It’s kind of what I wanted to achieve.”- Ellie Goulding
“If you look deep enough you will see music; the heart of nature being everywhere music.” – Thomas Carlyle
I have been drawing or doodling to music with a lot of my younger clients recently and it’s been fun! It’s interesting to see what kinds of images the songs invoke. I thought I’d share some of my doodles with the music that inspired them. If you’d like, feel free to create your own drawings to the songs.
There’s definitely something amazing about the sheer power music has to evoke emotions and help us express our emotions. I tend to listen to a wide range of things, but maybe you’d like one of these.
Hi there! I felt like switching things up a bit today. I haven’t had a chance to take a lot of new pictures lately, so thought I’d share some music instead. These are all YouTube links, so you can see the video is there is one. There’s no particular order to these songs, they are just ones I like. I hope you enjoy this musical interlude! Warning, it’s wide ranging and weird. I’ll be posting more songs on future Wednesdays, I’m sure. There are just way too many good songs for just one post!
“Music acts like a magic key, to which the most tightly closed heart opens.” ― Maria von Trapp
“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” ― Albert Einstein
“Music should be your escape.” – Missy Elliott
“Life is for the living. Death is for the dead. Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid.” ― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems
“Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.” – Maya Angelou
“To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.” – Aaron Copland
“A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.”- Chinese proverb
“The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.” ― Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Although we are all inside, potentially anxiously awaiting a return to normal life, one of the coolest things that’s come from all of this has been the abundance of resources that are being offered to help alleviate stress and boredom.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, so please feel free to add your own in the comments. If the links don’t work, you should be able to copy and paste them. Please also comment back if you’ve tried any of them! Stay healthy!
Blueprint is a craft and sewing class website that’s being offered for free for two months right now. It used to be Craftsy. I have found a bunch of free patterns on it previously, but have never tried a class.
Joann’s Fabrics has a deal with Creative Bug for some amount of time free. I have no idea if it’s good or not, as I haven’t tried it.
NASA shares their pictures publicly, so those are always fun to look at. I’ve used some of them for Wednesday pictures.
Libby/Overtime is a virtual library app. you will need a library card. (I may have already downloaded 4 books to read and put 4 others on a hold to read later.)
