It is a part of the performing arts, but I think it deserves a header of its own - what a divine gift, whether we make it ourselves, or whether we listen to a live performance, whether it underscores a movie, or whether it is just gently in the background for a meditation or in a fine restaurant - music has the ability to move us and elevate the ordinary to the extraordinary! Even chores we don't like can become fun with it, and it can take us back to sweet longings and moments of love and joy and passion that we would otherwise have a hard time to get access to. Any great movie or performance gets additional depth through music in the background that we may not even consciously perceive, but that pulls at our hearts in ways that cannot be logically explained. And it's not only our hearts that are affected. Those who are sensitive to music tend to have full-body experiences at the peak of some of the best composed musical pieces that are highly beneficial for mind, body, and spirit.
Music is truly one of the greatest gifts in life, one that transcends boundaries of race, color, nation, and creed, and singing in a great choir or orchestra when everything flows can produce that feeling of oneness that is almost heaven already.
It can also be cool, and exciting, it can soothe a broken soul, and lift us up from the bottom of the deepest pit.
Music is magic in a can, readily available to all who can perceive it, and I hear that even those who can't, often hear it in their soul.
What a blessing!