music, therapy, and me

Things are getting done. I am pleased to see that my to-do list is shrinking a bit as things are being crossed off and other things are being placed on the list.  I managed to finish my first Sunday School video yesterday (the BIG task I was putting off due to my feelings that I might fail...). There are things that need to improve, but I think it wasn't all that bad for a first attempt and for making something up from scratch. We will see if anyone actually looks at it. I already have ideas for the next round. I have one big thing on my list for today - finish my sing about mini edition for January 2021. It gets released tomorrow, so I need to finish it up. That is added to today's list along with laundry and dishes and getting more done in the craft room. My goal is to get enough of the room picked up so I can start up my robot vacuum, Huey, and get him going again.  I like lists, mainly because (I think) I am a visual person. I enjoy seeing my to-dos getting smaller and th...

I have moved from a place of wanting to post every single day on this blog to my current viewpoint of "Eh." Since my attitude has changed so recently, I haven't posted much in the past three weeks. I've been so silent that Facebook is noticing! "You haven't posted in a while. Why not post something on this page so your followers will keep in touch." Thanks, Facebook, just what I need - an algorithm that chides me for my shortcomings! So, here is my explanation post. I have no explanation. I just haven't wanted to write lately, so I've been giving myself permission to stay in bed or to skip things entirely. I'm calling it mindfulness and all sorts of other things to justify why this is happening, but I really think it is just part of the ebb and flow of life. There you go. Sometimes ideas come to you quickly and other times ideas flit around, just out of reach and refuse to settle into a semblance of a paragraph. I believe that writing d...

Well, last night I did it! I took a step outside of my comfort zone and tried something that I rarely ever do - I attended a webinar that was not a music therapy webinar, but was more music education-based. I found it through a music therapy source, but it was not something that I would have ever found on my own, and the link arrived, and I just thought, "why not?" As a result, I spent an hour last night listening to two presenters talk about some humanistic principles and how they relate to musicking. (I love that word - musicking!) It was refreshing in a way that many things haven't been refreshing lately, and that was a great outcome for me! My word for this year is "Courage." I am doing things this year that I have never been brave enough to do before, and going to webinars that are outside of my comfort zone are part of those things. It's kinda silly to think that attending webinars can be a courageous act, but I'm finding that courage is no...

There has been a subtle theme going through my life this week that I hadn't really noticed until yesterday during a talk with my intern. It started with a thought about how to make music therapy treatment more meaningful for a large group of students with autism spectrum disorders. We have 19 people crammed into a tiny room and it is difficult to engage everyone at the same time. So, I started thinking about trying something new. Later in the week, I heard an interview on a program called "Q." I caught it on my way back home after choir practice on Wednesday evening. Jason Segel was talking about the things that he is doing - acting, singing, performing, and writing both movie scripts and children's books. I've enjoyed his work over the years and listened avidly. He was asked what scared him the most, and this is what he said... This idea stuck with me. On Thursday, I tried out the new idea with 19 people and 3-4 observers (surprise!!! Let's cram MORE p...