Thoughtful Thursday: Thinking Thankful Things

Happy Thanksgiving, American Music Therapists! Happy Thursday, everyone else!! Today is a day that is set aside in this country to recognize the process that European settlers and the indigenous peoples of this part of the world took to get to know each other. Whether you think that this situation was right or wrong, it happened, so I choose this day to think about other things that I am thankful for in these times.

I am not a person who enjoys the "traditional" foods of this holiday. I am not a person who gets all excited about spending time with other people. In fact, this Thanksgiving is pretty perfect for me - ham and cheese casserole, pecan pie, lots of alone time, and absolutely NO shopping outside of my home this weekend!! I mourn the loss of focus from a day to rejoice in what we already have and the new focus on getting stuff. I don't want to spend this day trying to fight my way to a "deal."

So, I don't.

I choose to spend this day contemplating things that I am thankful for...in no particular order...
  • my family - of course, this one is in a particular order. My family is my reason for doing the things that I do.
  • my friends - there aren't many people in the world that I consider to be close friends, but those that I have are dear to me.
  • my cat - there is something so comforting about being around a personality that includes vocalizations, cuddles, and arguments. My cat, Bella, brings so much joy to my life. She also drives me crazy, but I am thankful for that as well!
  • my health - it's been a bit dicey lately, but things are looking up in this area for me. It's amazing what changes when you take out something that just isn't working.
  • my profession - the music therapy profession is at a crossroads - again - and I am unsure what I will do if things don't really work out. I am hoping that logic will win out, but I feel that many are so far gone on the river of emotion that things will happen that will not be good for the profession. Amidst all this turmoil and arguing and...let's just say it - bull, I still love what I do - the day-to-day interactions with clients, using music to assist the persons I serve in finding their ways in this world. At the end of all this, I hope that we can all agree that this is the most important part of being a music therapist - the persons we SERVE.
  • my future - I have enjoyed the process of doing some planning for this upcoming year. The future is out there, shiny and new and ready to be lived. What a thing to be thankful for!!
What are you thankful for?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sing A Song Sunday - The Time Change Song (Fall)

It's the time of year where most of us here in the states get to fall back one hour. This is a wonderful time as it gives us a chance to get an extra hour of sleep and to reset our internal clocks to be in sync with the earth's rotation a bit more than we are during the summer. I love this time of year and really dread moving to Daylight Savings in the Spring. Today' song is directed towards choir members and can be found here . There is also a spring version, and I'm sure I'll post a link to that one next year when we [shudder] spring forward yet again... Here is a YouTube video of a guy singing the song. I'm so very sorry for the pitch, but at least he's out there trying his best. Yipes. Anyway, the song itself is based on a hymn composed in 1907 by John Hughes. The words are by Dean McIntyre and were written in 1995. I find the song a bit tongue-in-cheek, but they give me a giggle every time I read them, so enjoy!! Sorry for the lack of diagram
Read more

Being An Internship Director: Why I Do Very Little Active Recruitment

Image
I am not someone who participates in every single internship fair or makes ads for my internship program to put on social media. I do not feel an obligation to anyone to fill all of the openings that I have every year. I operate on a "if you build it, they will come" type of viewpoint. I figure that the interns who are meant to be with me will find me. As a result, I do very little active recruitment. I will be part of the AMTAS Virtual Internship Fair this upcoming Sunday. I am not really expecting too many applications coming from this meeting, but I am interested in how it is going to be run. I decided to sign up because I want to see what others are doing and offering out there. So, this Sunday, I will be sitting in front of my computer, listening to what others share about their internships. One of the things that I like about being a National Roster Internship Director is that I have the ability to decide how many interns and when those interns work with me. I occasiona
Read more

Dear AMTA

Dear American Music Therapy Association: I am debating long and hard about remaining in this relationship. I have been in this relationship since college, and this is not a decision that I am taking lightly or without great cost.  I am not happy with what you are bringing to this relationship. Now, I have been a selfish partner over the past several years - mainly because I am not feeling like we share a common mission anymore. It is easy for me to place the blame on you, but I know that this is not all on me. I have tried to be invested in communication and support and understanding, but everyone comes to a time where enough is enough. I am trying very hard to decide if the benefits that you provide to me are worth the feelings that I have about where I think you and I are going. I am not sure that our destination is the same anymore, and this makes me sad. To be completely honest, I am only in this relationship these days for the music therapy interns. I don't think that is a hea
Read more