music, therapy, and me

I am currently sitting in the family room at my last childhood home, blogging, and thinking about stuff. Nothing really all that important is going through my head, but I am thinking. There is something about being physically away from all things that I have to do that makes my brain start to rumble about other things. It happens every time I come here, and I am both invigorated by it and frustrated about it at the same time. For example, I love that I do not have to work for the next week. I love that I can spend time with the family members who are here, and I love that I can putter around. I am enjoying my mother create things for her Barbie dolls, and I love the self-satisfied giggle she emits when she accomplishes something for herself. We have a project to start creating some rooms to furnish with all the things that she is creating, and I hope that we get to that pretty soon. The frustration comes from not having my own things to create with. I am away from my own stuff, and Mom...

I woke up a bit later than I usually do (for the second day in a row), and I started my blogging routine after checking email and fiddling around with social media and all that. Going to my blog archive and starting up the random number generator is just something that I enjoy, so it was fun to get started with all of this today. The random number generator spat out the number #2281. This led me to a post from September 16, 2019, titled "What Do I Really Want?"  I always find it interesting to see what I was thinking back when. This one is a good reminder of things that I am working on right now. My word for 2019 was "courage." I selected a second word as well; "renewal." This post is a bit of a revealing discourse about me and some of my attitudes towards things that happen in the music therapy world and things that happen in my own life. I tend to go into periods of reflection and self-recrimination, and this seems to be me on the verge of this thing. As...

Happy New Year to you all! I hope that your year is going to be better. Just better. Better than what has happened to you in the recent years - whether the happenings of the past two years (or any sort of timeline that you feel is appropriate at this point) have been wonderful or lousy - there is room for better. There is always room for better. My new year started at about 12:30am when I woke from my early to bed existence. I had a hot flash and needed to use the bathroom, so I got up and looked outside to see if the snow had started. It had. I went back to sleep and managed to sleep until about 5am. After some social media bingeing, I came downstairs to do some work and unpacking. This has been a crying day. I have been crying since I awoke. I am getting accustomed to these days in my hormonal cycle, and I am very glad that it is happening on a holiday when it is snowing and where I do not have any sort of obligation to anyone other than myself. So, I am carrying around a bunch of ti...

It is the first day of school, and I am feeling sucked in by my tradition of self-examination and goal setting. I am actively trying to avoid said tradition because I am finding that my goal writing skills are wonderful, but my goal achievement skills really vacuum! I seem to like writing goals but not doing the work to achieve those same goals. So, I am not going to make goals for this school year (at least, nothing formal...yet). I do not know if I can keep this going for the entire school year, but I am trying, so we will find out. I've been doing this in my personal life for several months now. I am feeling less self-imposed guilt over not doing the things that I have flagged as important. I am hoping to find a way into completing tasks that does not include writing goals. This goes against every single trained music therapy impulse in my body, but I am trying to be strong!! So, in the void created by not writing goals for this new school year, I am going to take stock of sever...

"Life is pain, your highness." - The Dread Pirate Roberts, The Princess Bride I am a big fan of The Princess Bride , both the movie AND the book by William Goldman, and for some reason, the name of the Dread Pirate Roberts popped into my head this morning. It has been a rough night - I kept waking up for unknown reasons - and this is Tuesday which usually means some rougher sessions, so I am primed for an interesting day. So, now I am trying to figure out how to incorporate The Dread Pirate Roberts into my blog because the universe is insisting on it!  If you haven't watched this movie, then you need to do so. That's all. GO SEE THE MOVIE! Now, how do I explain all of this without spoiling the movie for newbies?? Hmm. Here I go... Throughout the movie, the Dread Pirate Roberts plays a role. The character inspires fear in those who hear the very name, and this reputation for being ruthless is a big part of the story. This pirate terrorizes the countries in question and...

It is early on this Sunday morning, and I am sitting in the semi-darkness, wondering what to write about. I have a blog post title generator that I occasionally use to help me find a way, and this was the suggested title that caught my fancy - Will Music Therapy Ever Rule the World? Ooh, boy! Here is my completely unsolicited opinion that has nothing to do with what you might think but is my right to hold and espouse to anyone who listens. Feel free to agree with me or disagree with me. We can debate this until the cows come home, if you would like, but I am just as entitled to my opinion as any one else is - and I will fight for the right for you to offer up your opinion, even if I feel that your view is incorrect (again, in my opinion!). Are you ready? Here it is. No. Music Therapy will never rule the world. How can it? How can music therapy, a profession which is growing in awareness and acceptance, be something that is universal? There are several things that are keeping us from wo...

I have this idea that we are at a crossroads in the profession of music therapy. I've been feeling this way for some time now and have watched as the association has struggled to find leadership, find members, and find a common direction. My feelings are not based on anything other than the thoughts that I get at times and the luxury of being someone who is not part of the association (other than membership) watching the entire picture from the far outside. I think this is part of my current interest in writing futuristic fiction about music therapy. I am thinking about "what ifs" and am making them into some sort of structure - one thing I like is structure. My heroine, Persephone, is just starting her music therapy educational coursework. She has a degree in Music Psychology and has been accepted to one of the four international music therapy education programs in the world. She has come to music therapy how many of us seem to come to the profession - a family membe...

This morning was the first morning in what seems like forever that I have a) woke up at the time I would always like to wake up (4:30 am) and b) felt refreshed after sleeping. It is such a good feeling to be rested and ready for whatever happens today. It is time for more futurist thoughts about music therapy and what things may happen for my hero, Persephone. I wonder where my story will take me today... CHAPTER FIVE Tuesday started very early. The alarm went off at 5 am, and Persephone reached out to silence it before hauling herself out of bed and stumbling to her small bathroom suite. She had three hours before her first class of the day and still needed to work on her assignments from the day before.  The first day of her new course of study had been slightly overwhelming. Persephone had not been around that many people all in one room in, well, ever. Her experience of school and university was only from the perspective of distance learning and virtual interaction...

DISCLAIMER: The thoughts that I'm putting together in this work of fiction are informed by several things - first, that the profession of music therapy is on the verge of a change brought about by several factors, including that of our professional organizations and membership demands; second, that this pandemic is changing how we "usually do things" in ways that will linger far after our stay-at-home orders do; and third, I like writing, and this seems to be a good time for a story. These thoughts are not based on much reality - just glimpses into possible future situations and possibilities. I am very interested in what you think - how do you think we will act as music therapists in the near future? What about the distant future? Do you think our profession will be changing based on the things we are learning about this pandemic? Do you think it will remain the same? Do you think that I am completely full of baloney and that this is a frivolous waste of time? Let me k...

"You are the class of 2050, four thousand strong. Welcome to the study of music therapy." The words echoed off the walls of the lecture hall. Persephone felt like cheering but resisted the urge because no one else cheered. Finally, the time had come to start learning more about what music therapists did and how they wrought their magic with people like Gram and with Evander. In fact, Persephone's first contact with music therapy was with Gram and Evander, and with Evelyn. Evelyn arrived one day when Persephone was about five years old. Evander, Persephone's older brother, was going to start music therapy in addition to all the other therapies that he did during the days. Mama always told Persephone to go to her kindergarten feeds when it was time for Evander to do therapy, but Evelyn asked for Persephone to join in. Evelyn sat down on the floor with Evander and invited Persephone to join them both. She took out a guitar and started to strum. The ...