Thoughtful Thursday: Reviewing 2022 Before We Head Into 2023

This was another rough year. It was a year of physical pain, grieving, loss of familial connections, gain of different familial connections, medication regimes, lots of feelings, and lots of questions. 

Three family friends lost their husbands in unforeseen situations which plunged me into secondary and primary grief. My work didn't change much, but since I was having so many musculoskeletal issues, I was on medical leave for much of three months, so I did not earn as much as I was supposed to during the 21-22 school year. I had to cancel a trip to see Mom and Kelly in July because I had COVID in June - thankfully, it was a light case, but it did interrupt my travel plans. I cancelled another trip to CA just three days ago when my flight disappeared from Delta's travel routes. I have been refunded my money and given a credit as well for that disappointment. 

Other things have happened that have been a bit more pleasant is acceptance to two conferences to talk about music therapy topics that are my passion topics. I have been able to work with three music therapy interns from different university programs this year. I connected with friends I have know for a very long time over Zoom. I made some new music therapy connections with music therapy students and internship supervisors over Zoom. There have been so many things happen this year.

As I state in these types of posts every year, I am not someone who believes that the turn of a human construct of time into a new something or other is a magical time when the slate of previous experiences is wiped clean. 

Found the picture!

I have broken away from the tradition of making resolutions in favor of thinking about my goals as quests and journeys rather than resolutions. Last year's quests were focused around my word for the year and included focusing on learning more about attitudes and other people's viewpoints, stretching my professional network, doing things around my home, and working on understanding my physical and mental health. I moved from the journal that had this picture, so I can no longer find those quests in my current journal. I am changing that for this year. I will be making a pull-out card for this next year to make it easier to transfer from my current journal (Star Wars) to the next one (probably Star Wars as well since I have just scratched the surface of the galaxy far, far away...).

I have a word for 2023. This is a practice that helps me focus my thoughts on quests for the calendar year. Some people think a word of the year is silly, but I like it, so I do it. 

I am at an age where I no longer care (well, I try to care less) about what other people think about me or what I do. If I want to buy Star Wars posters for my back hallway leading into the Star Wars themed bathroom, then I am going to do it! So, if you don't like what I like, then go on your merry way. I am a strong, independent woman who has her own way of doing things. I will let you do what makes you happy, especially if it doesn't cause harm to me or others. I may not understand why you make your choices, but I am sure that many of my choices are incomprehensible to many out there. That's okay.

Ohh, went into a bit or a rant there. Didn't mean to. They just slip out every once in a while.

Did you hear the NPR article about music having meaning on 12/28/2022? My friend, Janice Lindstrom, was interviewed as part of piece. I heard an advertisement for the show during Morning Edition, and my thought was "I sure hope that they talk to a music therapist as part of this piece," and lo and behold, THEY DID!!! I read the transcript but didn't listen to the piece on the radio. It's nice that they included Janice in this discussion. NPR has become more and more aware of music therapy and tend to find us when we make sense in an article. Hooray for Janice and NPR!!

Happy Thursday, all.