Now What?

I am in a "hurry up and wait" stage.

I have to wait to find out when my sliding glass door will be fixed. I am waiting for people to send presentation proposals for consideration for the music therapy conference focusing on clinical innovations for working with adolescents (here is the link for more information). I am waiting for the pollen to stop taking over my life. I am waiting for major life changes. There is lots of waiting happening right now, and I am just trying my best to be patient.

It is not easy to be patient these days.

I am exhausted and uninterested in much of anything. I will be traveling to my stuffy, humid, and hot room to do something with clients who will not be comfortable and will act out because of their comfort level. I cannot seem to please anyone these days. I also have very little motivation to create things for my clients. I have no idea what we are going to do this week. Now, I know that this is because it is April, and we are all tired, but I wish that things would just settle down.

The gardener who broke my sliding glass door on Thursday stopped by with a guy to examine replacing the glass. We now have to contact a glass company to see if they can replace the pane rather than the entire door assembly. I am not sure when this is going to happen, but I need to be there when they are working on my home. This lack of schedule is jarring for my complacency. In response to having to wait for strangers to be at my home, I put together five small booklets for use in junk journals. I went through scrapbook papers to find the ugliest papers that I owned for these booklets. They don't have covers yet, but they will. I am going to use my nervous energy to make books because that calms me and allows me to be productive.

Anyone want an ugly paper book? I've got five.

So, now what?

What do I do this week with my clients? How do I navigate cranky clients? How do I keep my cool while everyone around me is deep in emotion?

Interestingly, these questions are ones that I have navigated over and over in my time at the facility where I work. I usually figure things out as I go, but I can tell you that 33 years of professional experience is not a guarantee that you will have all the answers all of the time.

One of the things that I know is that we will all get through this time in the school year, but it will be rough in the process. That's where we are right now - in process. Spring storms are wrecking our schedules and causing physical damage. Some of my clients understand these things and others do not. Behaviors of concern usually escalate during this month with my clientele. We are all wondering "now what?"

So, I am baby-stepping through my morning. Baby stepping to the shower. Baby stepping through clearing out my car. Baby stepping to work. Baby stepping through work. Baby stepping home. Baby stepping through the rest of the afternoon and evening. Baby steps into what comes next.

That's what is going to happen now.

See you soon.