music, therapy, and me

...I am thinking quite a bit about music therapy and how things work. It is always interesting when I get pulled into specific thoughts and ways of thinking because these are the times when I become very focused on certain things and lose sight of the bigger picture for a while. After a bit, I do find that I am able to widen my gaze and find where specific thoughts and theories reside within the larger music therapy community. It does take some time for me to move from narrow thoughts to wider thoughts, though. At the moment, I am into the thoughts about using established melodies and then changing their words to reflect what I need the words to be in the moment. See my post from 2/26/2022 for some short thoughts about that particular topic. I am also spending some time reading a dissertation that a friend of mine asked me to read and comment on - very interesting topic - goes in nicely with my quest for a Grand Unifying Theory of Music Therapy, so I am engaged in some music therapy re...

EGAD! The last time I tried to write on this blog was a week ago. I didn't finish the post, so there has been silence from this keyboard for this entire week, so let me catch you up with all the stuff that has happened here in just seven short days. My mother and my sister arrived exactly on time (we are a bit concerned about getting them home, but they are here). I got them back to my house at 1am on Sunday morning, shuffled them off to the new mattress sets, and then went upstairs for three hours of sleep before heading off to church to do the children's part of worship. It went off without a hitch - even the littles sang their hearts out! I returned to my house to find that my sister and mother had started right in with the boxes in various areas of the house - the kitchen, bathroom, and office/craft studio. We went to get them a rental car for the week and then went out for lunch and some "necessity" shopping. After that excursion, I was exhausted, so I said goodn...

I am struggling this morning with the return of grief. I was able to think and miss and mourn my baby for a bit without tears, but they came back as soon as I got up - I am not sure why that is. I am moving from moment to moment at this time, catching sight of one of my curls out of the corner of my eye and thinking that it is Bella coming to see what I am doing, then remembering that she is gone, and taking the time to cry about it. Most of my gifts this year were cat-related, so looking at those things bring tears. I still love cats, but mine is gone, and that hurts right now. Even though this has happened, I still go on, and there are things that need to be done that are not related to my Belle at all. Tomorrow, I return to my Occupational Therapist to do more finger exercises. My fingers are very stiff and it hurts to bend them, but I am doing so. I am trying hard to keep to my regime of stretching them in specific ways four or five times a day, but each time is more painful. I nee...

I do not often take the time to decorate for the holidays because I do not usually spend time here for the December/January holiday. This year, due to COVID-19, I will be here in my place for both holidays, so I took a bit of time to set up my little Christmas tree in my home. At the moment, it is looking a bit forlorn as it is sitting on top of the cat climber (high enough that Miss Bella-Boo cannot reach it to eat it) with lights on it but no ornaments (or baubles as some in the world call them). The ornaments are waiting for me to find an extension cord, check the lights, and then reposition the lights for full coverage. Once that happens, I will finish the tree. I also have to find my tree skirt to cover up the base. I wonder where I stashed it the last time I decorated - which may have been 2015 - the last time I was at home for Christmas. I enjoy seeing my ornament collection once I have them out and on the tree. There are large ornaments that don't fit on my little tree, but...

I took a business-focused CMTE this past Sunday. During that check-in about my business and where I want it to go, I was encouraged to focus on only one thing. The presenter knows me pretty well and knows that one of my failings is that I want to do it ALL! So, I am challenged to focus on only one thing to develop and promote and work on. It is nice when what you want to do and what you enjoy doing merge into something interesting. This is the concept that I am pondering this morning - what do I love? It is all too easy these days to identify the things that I don't particularly enjoy. I've written several drafts of posts that I haven't published because they were full of ranting and emotion and negative thoughts that just seem more and more prevalent for me these days. I am struggling to keep a positive attitude these days as this change in my way of being drags on and on. I, though, am trying to find the things that I love in all of this. My challenge for this after...

While I've been very tired and dragging along somewhat in the high humidity and time zone lag position that I'm in at the moment, I have managed to come up with some "New To Me" Therapeutic Music Experience (my "NTM" TME ) challenge. Before I left for vacation, I made a coping skills calendar, identifying a specific skill to focus on each month. This month is emotion identification. Next month is Journaling. September is counting, and we're going to count in different languages as well as in our native languages. This is one way that I am going to use themes to organize a portion of my music therapy strategizing in the 2019-2020 academic school year. This week's "NTM" TMEs included a "Play An Emotion" experience and a newly, completely composed song, "If I'm Walking Down the Hall, and My Face Looks Like This." I also took out a song that I haven't sung in years because it was the favorite song of a client o...

This morning, I am getting the Talent Show CD ready to go. Today is our annual talent show, and I have a list of interesting acts to coordinate. I have difficulty coming up with all the music every year as my students aren't always the most detail-oriented people I know. I've been looking for a song by Skillet called Replay which doesn't seem to exist. At the same time, I am mourning the loss of a good friend of mine who died unexpectedly on Wednesday evening. He was a coworker, a faith leader, and a good, good friend. He went to the emergency room and did not leave it. I found out about it last night and am processing it. My faith tells me that death is not an end. It is just an end for sharing experiences here. I know that his faith told him the same thing, and the strength of his faith is helping me with this situation. I am mourning his loss for his family, especially for his wife who is also a good, good friend of mine. I know that she is in shock and will be in sh...

Today is the anniversary of my parents' wedding. My entire life, I've had to explain that they chose this day (typically known as April Fool's Day here) to be married because it was the first day of my Dad's Spring Break from college. They had an entire week for a honeymoon before he needed to get back to school. Mom was already working, and she could have a vacation as well. So, April 1, 1967 was the day. My mother's mom traveled from Springfield, Pennsylvania with my mother's best friend for the wedding. The entire way across the country to Lawrence, Kansas, my grandmother thought that she would find the entire thing to be a joke. I know she knew better, but the thought kept going around and around in her mind. She was the only one who could afford to make the trip, so Mom had a surrogate father walk her down the aisle to my Dad. Mom and Dad ended up having two wedding receptions - one with Dad's family and one with Mom's family. In between the two...

The title of today's post is brought to you courtesy of Bella-cat who feels an urge to stand on the keyboard on a regular basis. I'm not sure what it means, but I bet you didn't either and that's why you are here, looking at this blog right now. So, now I have to figure out how to write a post that is worthy of this title. It is Thoughtful Thursday. I'm not thinking very much right now except for how much my body hurts after physical therapy yesterday and whether I will walk or shuffle into the music therapy room at work - probably shuffle. I have a quotation sitting on my desk within my gaze right now, but I haven't been with it long enough to have a coherent thought about it yet. You'll have to wait until next week for that one. So, shifting topics now... I was asked to sing at a wedding two Saturdays from now. The bride and groom are friends of mine. I've known them for a long time and have had the pleasure of watching their romance grow. The mi...

I have an idea, and I think I'm just about ready to make it go. No, I'm ready to go. Yipes! I'm going to put this on my blog so that it is out in the universe, and I can't back out. Here it is (and I'm cringing as I write this because it is a level of commitment that I'm uncomfortable with, but here it goes)... Internship Handbook Here's the idea. Over the past two years, I've been offering internship webinars to interns from around the country. In those years, I've noticed that many interns (and, by extension, Internship Directors and faculty members) don't know some of the things that they are expected to know about being an intern. Also, there are lots of implied skills, techniques, and expectations that just simply don't get taught during coursework or in an internship. These are things that do not necessarily have direct links to the AMTA Professional Competencies , but that do affect job performance and satisfaction. Many of these ...

I have exactly one more thing to do this conference, and that is to attend exactly ONE presentation this morning before hopping on the shuttle and getting outta Dodge (obscure Kansas reference ;-). This conference has been a busy one for me, mostly meetings, greetings, and talks with folks on the way to different meetings and greetings. I have enjoyed myself this entire time and have felt less exhausted than in the past several meetings. I consider this to be a good thing and hope the trend continues next year in Jacksonville, Florida. As AMTA 2012 comes to a close, there are several things that I want to emphasize and review for myself. Please indulge me as I think "out loud," so to speak. My AMTA membership is important to me. It is important to be an active part of the organization that represents what I do on a daily basis. Sure, the dues are significant and sometimes difficult to accomplish on my limited budget, but the things that AMTA does for me on a daily basis ...

This post is dedicated to the things that I love...   Sleepy cats - This is the look that I get when I am flashing the camera when her highness is trying to sleep. Don't you love the personalities that animals convey? My music room (the view from my desk) - When my facility decided to make a new gymnasium wing, I was asked what I wanted in a possible music room. My answer, "SPACE." I got almost everything I asked for and am grateful every day I get to work in this beautiful music room! Mandalas and other Word Art - One of my favorite forms of relaxation is to doodle words and small pictures. This is one of my offerings from the past year. There is nothing that I like better than a blank piece of white drawing paper, a big box of markers, and some time to just cover the paper with words. J's Rainbow - Shortly after a young client of mine passed away, I saw this beautiful stormy morning and this glorious rainbow. The child's teacher always ref...