music, therapy, and me

I am currently involved in writing a large, very different project for me, so my blog is being neglected. I will try to post more in the upcoming week here because I am missing the routine of writing about music, therapy, and me.  It is Sentimental Sunday, and the random number generator sent me to post #2327 - November 11, 2019 . At this time, four years ago, I was recovering from emergency surgery and had found that someone had damaged the car that I was getting ready to trade in for a new car. I was hurt and scared and overwhelmed by it all. The accident was never solved. I spent money to repair the car and then traded it in for the car I have now. Looking back on posts like this one really reminds me of trends and situations in my life. I am not always the best person during personal emergencies. I do not handle changes in my schedule well. I also have difficulty focusing on more than one emergency situation at a time, but I always make it through with the long-distance support...

It is almost the start of a new school year in my area of this world, and as a school-based music therapist, I am getting myself put together enough to face this year with the same type of uncertainty that I faced the start of last year...and probably with good reason. At this time last year, I was uncertain that the pandemic outlook was as rosy as others seemed to think it would be, and my skepticism won out. Last year was a time where my work situation changed radically about every six-eight weeks, and being a therapist for students who could not be accessed was difficult - to put it very mildly. We went from full-time, in-person school to hybrid for some clients and live for others, to complete lockdown due to an outbreak at my facility, to back to full-time, in-person school for some and hybrid for others, to full engagement with all clients but in segregated classes (residents with residents, day students with day students), to full mixing of our two populations. I had to scramble...

I have a goal of formulating a morning and evening routine for myself. It's one of the things that I want to do for myself this year. I know what I want to have in that routine, but I am having difficulty getting a routine established so far. This is partially a function of my laziness, partially a function of the season (I don't feel good - darn harvest!!), and partially because I haven't found my motivation to get into a new routine. So, what do I do? I'm heading back into my goals and my desired routine to do what I encourage my clients to do - focus on one thing at a time, build up that one thing, and then add the next thing. One thing at a time. Isn't it amazing how much the things we do with our clients transfer into our own lives? Rather than taking on every single blooming thing that I want to do, I should listen to the advice that I give to my kids in crisis and focus on one thing and one thing only. Duh, right? So here goes my original goal of do...