music, therapy, and me

Yesterday was a loud day, both inside and outside the music therapy room. Everyone was screaming, oh, and urinating. I'm not sure that the two behaviors were related as those who urinated were not around the ones who were screaming, but those two things do not usually coincide. It's been a long half of the week. One of the situations would have been completely avoided had the lead classroom aide followed the school rules rather than making up her own rules. She told her students that they could shop in the student store after their music therapy session. I told them that they could not because the store was closed. BAM! Instant riot. This situation is one that is happening more and more with staff members lately. They think that they can interrupt what is happening in my room to get into the store. They are wrong. I am standing my ground on this one (with the support of the principal) and not allowing people to just come in whenever. After yesterday's riot, I will be in...

The pastor at the church where I work starts off each service with a time to quiet ourselves. (He doesn't really know too much about using music to assist in the process as we usually launch off into some rip-rousing verse of a familiar song, but it's the thought, I guess.) I never really get to the quiet center part of the experience, but I like the concept. I enjoy finding moments of quiet in the midst of a busy day. I have a spot at work that I go to sit in when the noise and bustle of the music therapy room takes over (the A/C unit sounds like a jet engine taking off much of the time). It is in the hallway, in a window nook that faces east. The bench there just fits my leg length, and it is next to a very large plant-tree hybrid, so there is some fresh oxygen right next to the seat. I go there to sit, to think, to dream, and to be part of, yet removed from, the rest of the school. The environment isn't that quiet, but I am able to find that quiet center there. T...