music, therapy, and me

I made the mistake of listening to a bit of the news on my afternoon commute yesterday. I did this because I left the iPod on my desk at work and did not have my usual distractions. I thought, "let's catch up with the news."  Bad idea. I have made a concerted effort to avoid the news since 2016. This mainly happened because I did not find any sort of rational thought happening when I was listening to what was going on in our world. I handle the news a bit better when I can choose how to interact with it - I can skip right over things and just read headlines, if I want. The ten minutes of news that I heard contained so many difficult items that I was unable to continue to listen. I started the CD in my sound system and then sang along with Wicked for the rest of my trip. I will make sure that I have my iPod when I embark on this afternoon's commute. The issue that I have with listening to the news is that there are so many important things happening that cause a stron...

It is Sunday morning, the day after the concurrent sessions of the online version of the Midwestern Region conference, and I am sitting here (sometimes accompanied by my cat - hence the lapse into French in the title above) thinking about the things that I experienced yesterday. I acted as a moderator for two presenters - I'm not going to put their names here because I didn't ask permission - and was thankful for the opportunity to learn about things that I've forgotten about instruments, about attitudes, and about thinking way outside the box. All four of the presentations that I moderated were things that interested me (which is why I selected them to moderate to begin with), and I feel inspired to try some new old things. I am remembering things that I've put aside thanks to the two presenters. For me, remembering things long forgotten or finding one new idea is what makes going to conferences so valuable. I've started feeling like there really isn't an...