music, therapy, and me

'Tis the season for MJ to be a bit scattered and overwhelmed! This is the week before the Online Conference for Music Therapy , and I am the treasurer and continuing education director for the conference. Right now, I am getting emails sent out to people from all over the world, and I am fielding questions from all sorts of folks about all sorts of situations! In addition, I just saw a position that I would enjoy doing, so I am thinking about applying. The worst case scenario is that I would not get the job, so why not try?? I have some time to get things together, but I would have to become a member again of an organization that I have stepped away from. Ugh. I have some time to think about this situation, but not much. This tends to be my busiest time of year - OCMT and everything else just seems to show up at this time. If I need to do something in an urgent manner, it will happen during OCMT week. It is pretty funny to note that there are 51 other weeks in the year, but I end u...

I made the mistake of listening to a bit of the news on my afternoon commute yesterday. I did this because I left the iPod on my desk at work and did not have my usual distractions. I thought, "let's catch up with the news."  Bad idea. I have made a concerted effort to avoid the news since 2016. This mainly happened because I did not find any sort of rational thought happening when I was listening to what was going on in our world. I handle the news a bit better when I can choose how to interact with it - I can skip right over things and just read headlines, if I want. The ten minutes of news that I heard contained so many difficult items that I was unable to continue to listen. I started the CD in my sound system and then sang along with Wicked for the rest of my trip. I will make sure that I have my iPod when I embark on this afternoon's commute. The issue that I have with listening to the news is that there are so many important things happening that cause a stron...

...and spent money that I didn't have to spend on Amazon Day last week...my stuff is starting to arrive now, and I am still pleased with my choices... I bought some spoons - my students seem to LOVE these, but the best part about them is that they bend. I don't love that as much, so I buy new ones every so often. That way, when they get so bent that I can no longer straighten them to a semblance of their former selves, I can replace them. I also bought a pair of mini kalimbas. I could not resist. They are in the picture above with the musical spoons for reference. They sound really good, and I like that they came in such cute packaging. Those things, a striker for my singing bowl, a drum set cover, and some paper things made up my order. Then...Thursday arrived and with it, Throw Back Thursday posts from my friends. One friend (actually, my middle and high school crush) has a dad who spent all of my friend's band life taking pictures of what was happening. Since I was in ba...

I woke up earlier than my alarm light this morning, but not 1:30 am early - more like 3 am early. This, believe it or not, is improvement. I just read an article that states that Gen X women tend to get less sleep than those in other generational labels. I found that a bit difficult to accept and also reassuring at the same time. While I was in my "I'm not really awake" denial period this week, I luxuriated in the way my afghan felt and the weight of the kitty sleeping on my legs and the way my body felt as I was able to stretch without having to contend with gravity pulling my spine down towards my feet. So, I remained in bed until about 5 am and then I took my shower where I remained a bit longer than I should have because now I am a bit late and need to get going so I can beat my interns to my office because I HAVE to have some quiet time before they arrive and I have to start my day as supervisor.0 uiiiiiiiiiiii - the cat decided to add her take on the morning befo...

Somehow, someone in Ireland viewed yesterday's blog post over 1,000 times. I wonder why. Anyway, I am sitting at my work desk, waiting for the power to go out. I don't have my flashlight nearby...maybe I should get that ready...the lights have flickered once already, but it was just a flicker...maybe I should light a candle. That would conquer the absolute blackness that is life without electricity (and no candle). I enjoy wild, stormy days like this one is starting to be. There is something quite humbling about being part of an environment where you cannot control what is happening - you can only react. I think this is how my clients feel most of the time, and not by choice. I am in control of most of my own destiny because of who I am, and when situations like this storm occur, I realize just how much I am able to do because of that identity. My clients do not have the same opportunities as I do - mainly because of their life circumstances and a little bit because of thei...

I went to the funeral of a dear friend yesterday. He passed away very unexpectedly a little over a week ago, and I felt that I needed to be at the ceremony celebrating his life. I don't usually go to funerals, mainly because of reasons I will iterate in the following paragraphs, but this one wasn't as wearing on me as some of the others that I've had to attend. The experience of yesterday reinforced some things that I know about myself, but that I've never really put into context before. I work at a church as the director of music and worship leader. I fill in for the pastor when he is gone, and I preach sermons and coordinate worship and do all the things that the pastor does during worship on a pretty regular basis. Some of the people in the congregation have complimented me on my ease with public speaking and have encouraged me to think about becoming a minister. It was on my list of things I thought I could do before I heard about music therapy. I know that role...

It is the week before Spring Break, and I am already ready for some time off. I only have five more days before a week off, but I want more time off right now! I didn't have to go do my church job yesterday so I had two entire weekend days off and to myself. A taste of break before break happens, and I am now ready for more! Unfortunately, I still have those five more days before I get some time to myself. I have absolutely no good reason for taking time off. I feel well. I am not running anything near a fever, and I have nothing to plan for music therapy sessions today. (Maybe that's part of the problem - I have nothing to plan for today.) I just really enjoyed being at home yesterday for my church day that wasn't and want to be at home today for a work day that isn't. I won't do that, though. There are times in the lives of every person where going to work seems like a whole bunch of... well, WORK! This feeling doesn't come over me very often, but when...

One of the recurring themes in my life is "Choosing How I Use My Time." I talk to interns about it, I talk to my family about it, and I talk to others about it as well. I recently read a blog post about getting started in a small business while working full-time, and I found some things to think about, especially when it comes to choosing how I use my time. I talk to people all the time about time management, organization tips, and making choices. These topics are based in my own experiences over the years and the systems that I have established for my own work life, personal life, and well-being. I have been a good time manager and a lousy one. My organization systems are always evolving and never exactly what I want them to be, but I continuously strive for the one system to rule them all! I also make LOTS of choices about how I use my time. I choose to do the fun things about being a music therapist (other than leading sessions, of course) at my home. I am often cre...

I had two separate situations happen at work yesterday where people told me I was wrong, and I was able to prove that I was right. The situations themselves aren't all that important, but the situations could have been completely avoided had the other parties involved actually decided to talk to me rather than making their own decisions that affected me. Now, I hate confrontation, but I will go into full-blown confrontation mode if something happens that is inappropriate or incorrect. I will fact check before I start a confrontation, and I will have documentation to back up my position. I believe in being prepared (Thank you, Girl Scouts!!), and I do not enter any sort of situation without knowing the facts. Two people tried to convince me, "We've NEVER done this before." I was able to prove that we did do things this way before and this is the way it is supposed to be. They haven't responded yet, but I will be able to provide email proof that they did these t...

On my cabinet that is behind my head when I run music therapy sessions, I have a bus ticket. It's our motivational thing this year - The Energy Bus . The bus ticket is what my administrators are currently giving out to teachers who are "caught being positive." I received one last week and have received none this week because my administrators NEVER actually come to my room. Anyway, last week, we were encouraged to turn in our bus ticket for a drink from Sonic. Now, I have this strange reaction to the water in the town where I work, so I decided that I would rather keep the ticket than get an intestinal infection. I posted my Bus ticket on my cabinet. It has been fun to see who pays attention to my cabinet decorations and who does not. Yesterday, one of my clients asked me, "Have you read The Energy Bus?" I responded that I had read it. The client asked, "What's it about?" Hmmm. How do you explain a corporate motivational book to a person who ...

This week, my session strategy consisted of a post-it note stuck on the side of the guitar. Fancy - that's how I do things - purple post-its in the shape of a square on the side of the guitar. I went through my TME file and wrote the titles of TMEs that we hadn't experience in a long time - some singing TMEs, some games, some general ideas - and then led the ones that I thought would work the best with each group. Things have gone very well, considering that my students have been extremely grumpy and short-tempered with each other, considering that staff members have also been very grumpy, and I have had to deal with rude comments, people who think that they are in charge of what I do (when they are NOT!), and two fire drills in 10 minutes yesterday (I was in the middle of My Aunt Came Back. My aunt never even got to go anywhere...). In between all of the grumpy responses to any and everything, we've made some music. I've used all of my knowledge of music as a therap...

There are only three pages left in this chapter, folks, and then I will have to find something new to focus on during these Sunday mornings. Thank you for going through this process of thinking through what was written so long ago with me. While some of the language (and thoughts) are a bit simplistic for me, I do consider this to be a foundation of all that I think about music therapy, so revisiting it occasionally is important. Last week I went through the three paragraphs that start off the final piece of Sears' outline - the description of the section titled, "experience in relating to others." Today, I will start reading through and discussing the sub-levels contained under that initial heading.  One of the things that I noted last week was the historical context of this book. In the late 1960's, the deinstitutionalization movement was just starting. Persons with exceptionalities were just starting to be included in the idea of civil and personal rights, so...