The End of the Year Review

It is the time of year when I tend to do some reflection on the past 12 months. It is easy to do this now because I am away from the demands of my regular life, so I spend time in the early morning hours waiting for others to wake up and get going. It really bites when my internal clock is set two hours ahead of everyone else's clock, but it provides me with time to think.

I am finishing up a planning journal that I started back in September 2024. It lasted 15 months, so I think I got my money's worth out of this one! This book of mine will be completely full once I return to my home. The new journal will start on January 4th, and I have been designing elements of it for the past two months. I love having these books, and I am thinking of new ways to use them in the next year.

This year has been a difficult one for me as a human but not as a music therapist. I went through my first round of cancer - everything is fine now, at least, that's what they tell me! This health stuff really snuck up on all of us and led to me having to take an entire month off from summer school, but that has been mainly resolved. I have preventative things to go through in the next six months to make sure that I am still clear of my cancer, but none of my medical folks seem worried. They are confident that I will not have to go through the things that my grandmother and work colleague went through.

I did not get to travel places. Instead, since I needed support, my family came to visit me! It was nice to have some family time with my Mom, my Sister, and my Aunt. I just missed going someplace new.

I continued to explore being a music therapist. I am finding lots of joy in making music with my students right now which is something that had diminished. I enjoy being the therapist, and I find that I really am not missing the rigors of being an internship director. It has been nice not to have to get onto someone for missing deadlines.

I am also finding a renewal of my creativity when it comes to composing music and writing therapeutic music experiences to share with others. I have been simply challenging myself to create ideas. I have not formalized any of them, but I have been coming up with ideas. My new dice system is helping me with this challenge. It is funny to me how using a chance system rather than a formulated system can spur my creativity.

I have spent time in structured papercrafting situations in my local community, and I am trying to continue that trend. Papercrafting is one of my escapes, and I want to cultivate that community a bit more. I am starting to become more familiar to the crafters in my area, and I like that.

One thing that I did not do well this past year was using the resources that I already have to enrich my lived experience. That will be one of my quests for 2026.

Last year's word was Cultivate.

I always select a word to help me focus my thinking and my quests for the year. I picked Cultivate because it was what I wanted to do in 2025 - grow the things that I want for myself. I am finishing this year feeling like I have managed this pretty well. I did not accomplish the things that I wanted to get done back in January of 2025, but I did accomplish other things that will help with my next round of quests.

I officially started a business after playing around with the concept for 30 years.

I found an idea that I think will help me transition smoothly from working school therapist to semi-retired, work from home, do some traveling therapist this next year.

I have figured out the types of things that I want to do with my next several years. I want to use my creativity in ways that I have not been able to explore because I am busy with a full-time job that is physically and emotionally taxing.

These are all part of my personal focus of cultivation. This year's focus will be a bit different, but not entirely.

My word for 2026 is metamorphosis.

This is my year to enact purposeful change. It is a natural break from the work I am currently doing to something else because I qualify for my full pension as of June 1, 2026. My body is breaking down because my students are hard to manage - both emotionally and physically. I want to be able to walk away from this job and into the next without having to lose any more mobility, so I will leave while I can!

I will be trying to make something of my business to help with the cost of living and will, possibly, find another job that is less trauma-filled and more just routine. I would love to work at the local movie theater, but I'm not sure I could do the late nights required. We will see what happens after I get a bit of rest in and know what I will be paid out of my pension. I want to take about three months off before I look for anything else. I need to get really bored, and I need to take care of my house before I can contemplate something else.

It is time to move from being a full-time school music therapist to being something else. I just don't know what I will become after I emerge from my cocoon. Hopefully, it will be fun and beautiful. You just never know.

Metamorphosis.