Life Status: Scattered and Spread Out All Over the Place

Oh, dear.

This is going to be one of my "less than interesting to anyone except for me" type of posts. I am trying to change my life circumstances from apartment dweller to townhome owner and am in the "Why the heck do I have this much stuff, anyway?" stage.

It is disheartening to see the boxes pile up with no appreciable decrease in the amount of things that need to be packed, but I must move forward. Egad! I am getting bogged down in stuff, and it is not good to be bogged down at all!

I am going through my old textbooks and am sorting through what I want to keep and what I want to send out into the void of thrift stores. Since I live in a university town that has a music therapy population, I thought that sending my texts to the thrift stores might be one way to get those texts into the hands of people who cannot spend $45 on a text but who would be thrilled to get the text for $1.59. I am trying to figure out what I am going to do with the stuff that I have next so that I am not moving trash to the new place.

I am proud of the (so far) seven bags of books and two boxes that I have gleaned from my library so far. That does not make a dent in how many books I own and have and love to have around me, but it is a bit of progress. My goal for today is to have all of my fiction books boxed and in the hallway. This includes four 1X4 inch bookshelves, four five shelf bookshelves, and one eight shelf bookshelf to box up and move around. If I can get the books boxed, then I can start tearing down the bookshelves which will make a difference in how my bedroom looks. I have started the books in the living room, but I am nowhere near where I need to be to consider that room finished up!

Some of the books I read once and now am finished with forever. Others have not been read at all - George RR Martin books are in the donate stack - I just can't get into Game of Thrones - I tried to read the first book five separate times and have not made it through! So, off goes the series into the donation pile. I am in the process of getting a moving company to move me to my new house soon. It's very scary for me to be in this point in the moving and home ownership process, and I wish my Dad was able to tell me what to do for each step of the way, but I am making it.

Remember to breathe.

I am tending to focus a bit more on what is happening around me than I am on music therapy association things, but AMTA continues to send out updates about leadership, about processes, and about other issues that have arrived. We have had a resignation, and as a result, there is having to be a restructuring of the board to accommodate that resignation. That will place other issues back a bit on the agenda of the association, but we got another email yesterday about the timeline of these issues. It's nice to know that other people are still working towards these goals and issues while I am preoccupied. According to a message I saw this morning, the world of Music Therapists Unite is erupting, as it usually does. I am glad that I exited that particular den of arguments, misspeaking, and accusations years ago! There is noting that unites us in that group other than the desire to contradict what others say in a rush of vitriol!

My focus stretches from here to a mile away from here. That's about all I can focus on at the moment, and I am fine with that. I have to find a way to trust the people that we have selected to lead the association to actually do that - lead the association of members!

I am, however, thinking about the practicality of trying to run an association of anyone where you have to constantly bend to the whims of those who refuse to be part of the association. I do not think that this sort of outlook is practical, and I know that there are others that feel that way as well. How can we even try to figure out what non-members want or need? They aren't part of the association! I am getting ready to send a letter to the AMTA Board of Directors about this very statement. It may not arrive until next month, but there is something that I want to say about trying to cater to voices that are outside the organization.

I mean, a home owner's association does not ask the people outside the association for their opinions about the neighborhood and then change everything to accommodate the opinions of people outside their association! No! They ask their members to come to an agreement.

Now, I want to stress the fact that I am not anti-change for AMTA. I definitely think that things need to change. I am asking AMTA to focus on those concerns of people who are actually members of AMTA rather than flopping in the wind of outside criticism.

There will always be those who choose to be outside the organization who criticize. There will always be more that can be done. At the moment, though, we need to be listening and asking the members for their ideas, options, and talents to fix the association from the inside. Outside voices need to be tuned out - why are we asking all music therapists to help make decisions about how AMTA uses the money I have to pay every year? It is something to consider.

This sorta turned into an AMTA discussion, didn't it? That was not my intention at the start of this post, but I often go away from my title as I continue to write about things. It is time to start my book packing quest - so, I am going to be thinking through what I want to share with the Board of Directors of AMTA while I am putting books in boxes and then stacking those boxes with the other boxes and getting more boxes.

Just like with my move, this AMTA movement will also come to an end. I hope that this end will be a positive one, with a thriving music therapy association who offers transparent information to members and who takes non-member opinions into consideration but who remains dedicated to those who actually fund the association. That's my hope.

There's the tape.

Gotta go!