"get your a** out there and do it"

Friday morning, November 1, 2013...really?  November?  Warm and very breezy...but a change is comin'

Yesterday I went to the Infusion Center at the Hospital to play.  I haven't been there in 3 weeks and I felt terrible about it.  They were so happy to have music.  I love that the Staff as well as the patients are light on their feet and singing along to the tunes.  I always observe the environment before I start to play.  It's always a sure thing, 10 minutes later it's an entirely different place.

One of the things I am finding very hard to deal with is the fact that when my Internship Hours are complete, it will be very hard for me not to come play for my patients.  I have grown to love these people in so many ways and I know that if I don't come, there will be a huge void for them.  Most of the patients I play for are bed-bound.  They don't leave their room to enjoy music programs and other activities with the other Residents.  I try to imagine myself lying there, hour after hour, day after day.  No stimulation, no conversation, just a blaring TV in the background.  The reality is, I need to have an income.  I need to be paid for my services and if that is not happening, I need to use that time to complete my reading, practice my harp and take care of my home and family.  I want to set aside one day of volunteer work, but one day won't cover the various facilities that I am working at now.......oh to be independently wealthy...well not wealthy but enough to pay the bills and eat on a regular basis, hahahaha!

I am doing my internship hours at 2 Assisted Living Facilities and the Hospital.  Employment at the Hospital will be a possibility in 2014, if funding is increased for the program.  At the Assisted living where my Lady lives, I am not confident there will be funds to keep me as a resource for the patients I have been seeing during Internship....sad...very sad.  But some good news from the other Assisted Living, I was told on Wednesday that they want to keep me as a Resource with a paid position starting in December.  It won't be full-time of course, but it will be at least 1 day a week and I might be able to stretch the funding into 2 days a week.  I am so thrilled about this, as I have grown so attached to these patients.

I am also doing a commercial for Sunrise Sr. Living next Thursday and it will highlight Memory Care through Therapeutic Music Sessions and word has it I will also be a paid Resource for their facility.  I don't have details about how often this will be available for their residents, but anything is better than nothing.  I am also a Resource for Household of Angels once a month....so as I move forward in this field, I continue to learn how to present my work to prospective employers.   It's a really beautiful thing when the staff are there to witness the profound impact that live therapeutic harp music has on the patients.  I have been fortunate to have the staff walk in while I am giving a session and be so blown away at the results.  It's from that feedback that the validity of what I do with my harp is worth keeping me around, lol

I actually don't know how this whole thing started to begin with.  How I landed where I am in my life today is a complete mystery to me.  2 years ago when I bought my first little harp, not in my wildest dreams did I think I would be doing therapeutic music.  It's not like it was a dream of mine or that I had always intended to do this.  Sometimes when I am playing for a patient, I feel my Mom and Dad's presence in the room.  Oh how I wish I could have played for them as they were taking their journey into the next realm of their lives.  Perhaps they have a hand in my adventure....that would be just like my Mom...."get your a*# out there and do it" !!!!!