Music is an energy source that impacts the mind and inner soul in multiple imaginable and unimaginable ways. “Numerous scientific and psychological studies have shown that music can lift our moods, combat depression, improve blood flow, and lower levels of stress.” (Markham Heid, April 26, 2018, Time.com). Through music our imaginations can be energized and our memories can be enlivened to recall times, places and specific events.
In her article “How Listening to Music Can Have Psychological Benefits” Kendra Cherry states:
Listening to music can be entertaining and some research suggests that it might even make you healthier. The notion that music can influence your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors probably do not come as much of a surprise. If you’ve ever felt pumped up while listening to your favorite fast-paced rock anthem or been moved to tears by a tender live performance, then you easily understand the power of music to impact moods and even inspire action.
How Listening to Music Can Have Psychological Benefits, Kendra Cherry
As Northwest embarks upon our long awaited building expansion project the music that we select to accompany our excitement regarding it will serve to support our expectation of enhancing our outreach to the Atlanta community. In Hymn number 288, All Are Architects, we find verses lifted from the poem, The Builders by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882):
All are architects of Fate, Working in these walls of Time;
Some with massive deeds and great, Some with ornaments of rhyme.
For the structure that we raise, Time is with materials filled;
Our to-days and yesterdays, Are the blocks with which we build.
Let us do our work as well, Both the unseen and the seen;
Make the house, where gods may dwell, Beautiful, entire, and clean.
Else our lives are incomplete, Standing in these walls of Time,
Broken stairways, where the feet, Stumble as they seek to climb.
Build to-day, then, strong and sure, With a firm and ample base;
And ascending and secure, Shall to-morrow find its place.
The Builders, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
May the words of this song and others serve to inspire our continued acts of service to others as we embark upon, observe and then witness the conclusion of the expansion program. May it be so!