music, therapy, and me

I am at the beginning of my second summer break. This is the time when my "want-to-do" list just grows and grows and then reality sets in and I realize that there is so much that I just don't want to do... I get this way at times. I have lots of things that I want to do, but not enough time in the day to do what I have to do in addition to what I want to do. My music therapy list of things I want to do is so very long. It is both heartening and disheartening to look at the spiral notebooks that hold my ideas. I am going to get something finished this week. I'm not sure what it will be, exactly, but I will finish something.  Before I get to my "want-to-do" list, I am going to write out my "not-to-do" list. I've found that this list is important so I can get myself going and not get bogged down in my "woulda, coulda, shoulda" goblins. You know the ones - the thoughts that start with "I should be..." or "If only I wo...

Yesterday was a horrible day. I have a feeling that this is going to be the way Tuesdays and Thursdays are going to go for a while due to the classes that I see on those days. My afternoons now have three groups in them, and the groups are not the easiest groups to see. I tried REALLY hard to see those groups in the morning when they are less tired and cranky and a bit more ready to engage in therapy. At this time, I think therapy will be just separating kids from each other and keeping them from engaging in social interaction. They just cannot seem to be in the same place for more than 2 minutes. I left work with the news that we are now replacing 4 of our 12 teachers in the next month (if we can find folks to take those teaching positions). More upheaval for my students who do not deal well with change to begin with. More upheaval for me and my co-workers. We already had a new teacher beginning, a new Speech-Language Pathologist, and a new COTA starting in July - now we get to add ...

I am moving into a new era in my life. I've decided this will be so, so it is happening. As a music therapist who has been around for, face it, a very long time now, I have lots to offer and to think about, so I am starting a new chapter in my life. This is the year I stop thinking about things and actually do things! What has inspired this train of thought? Several things. I am not very happy where I am right now both professionally and personally. I talk lots about moving on when the job becomes too much to handle or boring, so it's time to follow my own advice. If that means moving from where I am to another location, job, and/or focus, then so be it! My grandmother left the world last week for the next world, and that is inspiring me to live a life I want to live instead of a life I have to live. The last thing that is happening right now is a general feeling that there has to be more to life than what is going on. I am getting glimpses of what is possible from a friend o...

I was having a very lucid dream this morning; one of those dreams where you aren't quite sure whether you are actually dreaming, but things are just a bit off, so you must be dreaming... Does anyone else have those types of dreams? Just me?? Oh dear. Anyway, I dreamt that (sidenote - did you know that dreamt isn't recognized by spell check? Weird!) I had to go get something from my parents' business site and when I got there, things were packed up. It was pretty obvious that they had closed the business and were moving out. Yet, no one had told me about it. I was very sad about them losing the business and somewhat resigned to the fact that no one had told me about it. Now, my parents did have a business several years ago, but this location was not the same. Also, when my parents decided to close their business, they told me, so none of this dream is based on the reality that I have lived. The business site wasn't even the same, but I have dreamt about this particul...