Take the simple act of preparing a meal for your family. It may seem rather basic but in making the meal you are also communicating your feelings of love and your desire to give.

An artist does the same thing. He will communicate his inner thoughts and feelings through his paintings.

Joy and depression are easily discernible in a painting. Just think of the emotion in Van Gogh’s paintings. His depression is quite palpable in his portrayal of brooding dark clouds and black ravens hovering over a cornfield; while his happiness is clear to see in his paintings of lovely fruit orchards covered in a profusion of pink blossoms.

Musicians communicate their feelings through their music and as we listen we respond by experiencing similar feelings too. It’s a two-way stream – which is the essence of communication.

Just think of how we respond to Beethoven’s emotive music, or Chopin’s sad music or how the music of Scott Joplin makes us feel happy and carefree.

And not to be forgotten is the art of handwriting. We send and receive messages through our handwriting.

We don’t only communicate our feelings with the words we have written but the very art of handwriting is a conduit of communication expressing what we think and feel about life in general.

It can be very revealing.

You can check out the categories on the top right hand side for more about the revelations and hidden meaning of handwriting – which you may have noticed is one of my pet interests!

Our technological advances in communication are so sophisticated that we are even communicating on an interplanetary level.  Right now projects like Seti are broadcasting messages to outer space – Hello someone!

Fascinating no doubt. Unfortunately our ability to listen hasn’t kept up with our technology. In fact our listening skills were at their best when as spellbound clansmen we listened to skin-clad hunters relating their adventures around the cave fire.

Our listening skills have certainly deteriorated since then.

The reason is that our capacity to listen has been drowned out by the noise of our civilization. Noise has become so loud and obtrusive that we automatically shut it out till we can no longer hear it.

And so we no longer hear the noise of traffic and we don’t chat with friends at functions because of ear-blasting bands.

The honest truth is that we can’t hear anything above the loud hum of our civilization’s machinery.  Noise and frenetic activity have swallowed up the precious silence.

That is why we have learnt not to listen on so many different levels. But we pay a price for it – we become less perceptive.

And so we hear the conversation but we lose the meaning; we feel the beat but we don’t hear the tune; we see the glance but we miss the silent message.

It’s sad because understanding these silent messages is what real communication is all about.  And let’s face it  – if you are involved in any field of creativity at all, it’s vitally important to get through the noise so that you can hear the underlying message.