music, therapy, and me

Forgive me as I engage in some vague discussions about various topics that I do not want to publish... I have a decision to make about something going on in my life that will shunt me off into a direction different than the one that I have been envisioning lately. I have various and sundry things to think about, and I have to figure stuff out a bit in order to make this decision. When I am faced with critical decisions about my life and what I will be doing with said life, I have several systems that I use to make the entire process easier on me and my loved ones. Let's talk about those systems today... (I promise that this next paragraph will make sense - eventually. Just bear with me, okay??) I am a paper planner. I use my books in several ways - as a journal, as a calendar, as a task organizer. In the back of my books, I keep pages blank to use as needed for whatever else I need to work through. The books that I have currently are being used up as much as possible before I start...

I have a series of music therapy resources for music therapists out there that no one has ever really heard about - sing about songs . These collections are sometimes theme-based, sometimes released monthly, and sometimes just my collections of therapeutic music experiences (TMEs - AKA what I do in sessions with clients). I always write out procedures and provide sheet music for original songs or full source materials when using other music, and I think out all sorts of therapeutic functions for the music provided as well as for the clients engaged in the TME. These editions are labors of love - a passion project - for me, and I always feel a bit queasy when I talk about them, but I am finding that I need to get more comfortable with the idea of promoting my intellectual property to a target audience. sing about songs   is the fruit of my first thesis idea. I wanted to design a music-enhanced education resource for music therapists and non-music therapists, and I had it most of the...

The best thing about being on vacation for a long period of time is that I start to get new ideas and start feeling the itch to be back where I have all my stuff around me to accomplish those new ideas. (Does that make sense?? I am still jet-lagged and exhausted - Mom and I went to bed around 7pm last night.) I am getting to that point now, but I still have a week at my destination, so I have to write things down and defer them until later. A friend and I did some peer supervision on Saturday, and she mentioned that she was introducing the concept of instrument families to her clients. That started my brain, and now I am designing an instrument family edition of sing about songs . I could start the visuals here - I think all of the instrument clip art is in my cloud - and will probably end up doing that this week. I have all sorts of Zoom things happening this week - an interview, an I/DD support meeting, another for a discussion about music therapy influences and mentors. I have alrea...

I can tell you, I love the quiet. I have not turned on a television for over a week now, and the lack of commercials and noise has been wonderful. I have streamed some content, but I have not touched the television remote at all. I am enjoying a bit of quiet. This is not sustainable, and I know that, but I am enjoying it all the same. When I am at my mother's house, we watch what she wants to watch. If I want to be near her, then I have to watch Hudson and Rex , and All Creatures Great and Small  (not my thing AT ALL), and Blue Skies , and all sorts of shows that I do not have access to in my streaming world. So, I tend to watch my Netflix dramas upstairs in the sauna room with western light access where it has not dipped below 75 and tends to remain around 80 degrees all the time. Not that I'm complaining (but I really am!). I find that silence is what I need to refresh my creativity and my need for music. When I am constantly surrounded by noise (even noise selected by me and...

Thursday has come around again. I am packing up my clothing and all my stuff from this trip because we leave tomorrow. It has been a good trip - lots of socializing and still more to go before we are finished. It is not over for me. There are more things to do in our next destination. Being away from my home and being in several different places has been good for me. I have had lots of time to think about various options for my life. I have an ultimate destination in mind for where I want to be. What I want to do is forming in my brain. I am trying to figure out how to find money to do these things. Right now, I am tempted to play the lottery to find funding for my dreams, but I know that I need to find something a bit more realistic. By the way, does anyone want to give me money?? I will take it! (Tongue firmly in my cheek right now!) Having this time to think has been good for me. I have been able to talk over plans with people who love me and who have absolutely no interest in my di...

I am spending this week with my mother and her best friend. They have known each other since they were 3, and since they are in their early 80's now, they have decades upon decades of friendship to go through. Aunt Mary has not lived near my mother since they were 18, but it takes no time at all for them to fall back into old routines, Girl Scout songs, "remember this?" discussions, and inside jokes. We came on this trip so Mom and Aunt Mary could see each other again. Mom is in the season of life where her friends are disappearing into their mortality or into memory care facilities. She is losing them and does not know how to get back into touch with many of her friends from high school and college. Aunt Mary is not one of those friends, but her husband passed away this year. It was important for us to see her rather than just relying on emails.  So, Mom and I arrived early on Monday morning and have been spending the days with Aunt Mary. I leave after dinner and head to...