storytelling

Music to Reset Your Perspective

by Kerry Dexter /
Kerry Dexter's picture
Jun 19, 2023 / 0 comments

A bit of rest, a moment for for reflection: in these shifting times, it can be a challenge to find time—even to remember to take time—for such things amidst shifting times in politics, personal life, world news, climate emergencies, and other ongoing events.

Music works well for this, though. Music can be a gateway and a companion to encourage and allow a bit of rest, a moment to step back, to reset one’s perspective.

Depending on circumstance and your taste in music, a lively tune can be just helpful with this as a reflective song.

Music Inspired by Art, Landscape, Books, and Turning Wheels

by Kerry Dexter /
Kerry Dexter's picture
May 15, 2023 / 0 comments

Challenge, exploration, reflection, change, connection: each of these things is part of the shifting times we are living through, and that we consider in this ongoing series. There are other aspects of life that musicians address, too, of course.

Take a bit of time to let the creativity of these artists speak to you of, and during, shifting times.

Music Inspired by Art, Landscape, Books, and Turning Wheels

Music for Seasons of Change

by Kerry Dexter /
Kerry Dexter's picture
Apr 17, 2023 / 0 comments

In the northern hemisphere, spring is coming on; to the south of the globe, it is autumn. Both of those are seasons of change, and seasons of resilience. Seasons in which noticing and exploring changes in nature can help one’s perspective on changing and shifting times.

Music for Seasons of Change

Music to go along with these ideas:

Connection to and through Music

by Kerry Dexter /
Kerry Dexter's picture
Mar 20, 2023 / 0 comments

Connection happens in all sorts of ways.

Connection to and through Music

There is connection to family.

There are friends, well known and loved ones, ones seen only in passing or known long ago, but yet connected still, and part of life.

There is connection to community built around all sorts of things, among them faith, sport, food, occupation...

Music's threads of hope and resilience

by Kerry Dexter /
Kerry Dexter's picture
Feb 20, 2023 / 0 comments

News of natural disasters comes from Turkey and Syria and New Zealand. There’s the ongoing war in Ukraine and strife in Myanmar and Ethiopia. There are shootings, arguments, food insecurity, racism, political division around the globe, the ongoing effects of climate change, anger in public and private life...

All of which can make for a rather bleak scenario. Musicians live through these things, too. Often, there are threads of hope and resilience to be found in what they create.

Dr. Jessie Voigts's picture

Hollyland: A Feel-Good Novel for All and a Must-Read for Every Artist and Art Educator

Patricia Leavy, one of our favorite authors, is back at it with a novel I couldn’t put down. In fact, Hollyland is the novel we’ve been hoping Leavy, an acclaimed arts researcher, would write. You see, in addition to being a prolific novelist with an unmistakable voice in women’s fiction, Dr. Leavy is also a world-renowned scholar. There’s no hyperbole here. She started receiving lifetime achievement awards at the age of 35!

Music for the New Year and Possibilities of Hope

by Kerry Dexter /
Kerry Dexter's picture
Jan 16, 2023 / 0 comments

It is winter in the northern hemisphere now, January.

I have always found this time of year time for reflection, for creativity, for seeking peace, and of course, for wondering and considering about what the new year will bring.

Music for the New Year and Possibilities of Hope

Music for Winter, Solstice, and Holidays of All Sorts

by Kerry Dexter /
Kerry Dexter's picture
Dec 19, 2022 / 0 comments

December. It is winter, solstice, and holidays of all sorts, of seasonal observances by those who hold many different faiths and by people who hold no faith .

Whatever you may be marking this winter season, music offers a way to find connection, reflection, celebration, and peace.

This is true even if Christmas is not your story, or you feel you have heard too much holiday music.

Music for Reflecting on Change

by Kerry Dexter /
Kerry Dexter's picture
Nov 21, 2022 / 0 comments

Change. It is a constant; at times welcome, at times resisted, at times unnoticed until much later.

Wherever you find yourself in the world at this moment, you know the effects of change, in politics, in personal life, in climate and nature, and in many other spheres.

Music to offer you varied perspectives as you live through and think about change:

Music for reflecting on change

Travel with Awe and Wonder: Newfoundland Weather

by Christy Anselmi /
Christy Anselmi's picture
Oct 31, 2022 / 0 comments

This summer, my husband and I undertook a move. A relocation from Massachusetts to Arizona has been undertaken by others, no doubt. We decided to make things a little more interesting than a direct route. We headed north. Our circuitous route is winding us through Newfoundland, Portugal, and North Carolina. When one would think to take the southerly route from the Carolina’s to Arizona in the winter months, we will make Bugs Bunny’s famous right turn at Albuquerque to get to Bozeman, Montana. Then, we’ll drive to Arizona.

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