The Arts and Personal Development
The Arts is a broad term, consisting of the expressive
disciplines, which include among others, art, music and literature.
Learning about the arts contributes to
personal growth and development by stimulating our senses
and sensibilities and by awakening the creative and expressive aspects
of our being.
As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said:
"A man should hear a little
music, read a little poetry, and
see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares
may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted
in the human soul."
Art
Art,
along with
music
is a universal language. Through the ages, transcending time and space,
artists have told us their stories and conveyed their emotions through
drawings, paintings, architecture and sculptures. We have observed
their joy, sorrow, peace and frustration expressed in their work.
Likewise, art allows us to express ourselves.
Through that expression, we communicate. When we enjoy and look at
someone else's art, we see the world through their eyes. When we create
our own art, we allow others to see it through ours. Whether you create
your own art, or appreciate the beauty and genius of the great masters,
it lifts and inspires you beyond your everyday consciousness. Enjoying
art is relaxing, therapeutic and rejuvenating.
Music

If music
be the food of love, play on".
Shakespeare
Music is
not only the food of love; it is the food of the spirit and the soul.
Like art, it is a universal language and like art it has the ability to
transport you beyond your ordinary level of awareness.
Above and beyond
its ability to awaken our senses, studying music helps develop critical
thinking, self-discipline, spatial reasoning skills, as well as math
and reading ability.
Literature
Reading
the novels, poetry, short stories and essays of some of the world's
greatest writers and thinkers enriches us by: exposing us to the
interesting, fascinating experiences of others; giving us insight and
understanding into human nature and the human condition; helping us
understand ourselves; while at the same time it transports us to
different worlds by stimulating our imagination and creativity.
Exploring the arts is fun and rewarding on so many
levels - intellectually,
spiritually and creatively.
The Wonder
Of Poetry
Enjoy these moving poems about life, the human condition, and existence
by these great poets:
O
Me! O Life! and O Captain! My Captain! by Walt
Whitman
A
Psalm Of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
If
by Rudyard Kipling
The
Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
It
Couldn't Be Done, Life, and Don't Quit
by Edgar Albert Guest
Turn
Turn Turn Ecclesiastes
3:1-8, Pete Seeger
Today's
Joy Was Born Of Yesterday's Sorrow and Bend In The Road by
Helen Steiner Rice
The
Tear by Lord Byron
I
Wandered Lonely as A Cloud by William Wordsworth
William
Wordsworth Quotes
The
Life of Man by Sir Francis Bacon
Do
Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by
Dylan Thomas
Encouragement
and The Old Stoic by Emily Brontë
Ode
To A Nightingale by John Keats
To
A Mouse by Robert Burns
On
Death by Anne Killigrew
Love
and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
The
Charge of the Light Brigade by Lord
Alfred Tennyson
The
Other World by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Invictus
by William Ernest Henley
A
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Poem
Inspiring Goethe Quotes
In
Memory of Major Robert Gregory by William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats Quotes
The Raven by
Edgar Allen Poe
Edgar Allan Poe Quotes
Shakespeare
Quotes
Quotes from Shakespeare
on Life, Virtue, Ourselves.