We’re Counting Our Blessings
It’s November! And we wanted to take a minute or two ( or more… do you know us? We’re kind of talkers…) to share our thankful thoughts. We’re curious to know what is on your mind this time of year as well!
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Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Hands-down. It’s a holiday that’s not about spending money on gifts, but about spending quality time with friends and family. I get to eat my favorite foods (give me the entire bowl of mashed potatoes, please) while I reflect on all of the things for which I am grateful. And one of the those things I am thankful for is to be a part of MusicTherapyEbooks.com.
Every time I go to the site and scroll through the e-books, I am reminded of how lucky I am – to be surrounded by music therapists who exude excitement and ooze creativity, who want to share their ideas with other music therapists, who have the drive to find the time in their extremely busy schedules to write down their tried-and-true music therapy materials.
I am also incredibly grateful to have a business partner like Michelle Erfurt. She is someone who has a knack for copy editing, an eye for detail, and a great sense of humor. We compliment each other well, keep each other accountable, and have fun together every time we talk (almost TOO much fun, as you can see in this video).
Lastly, but not-in-the-least-bit leastly, I am also so thankful for YOU – our readers and subscribers. Thank you for supporting us and supporting our authors. Thank you for sharing your ideas and sharing in our enthusiasm for our e-book community. I truly wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope it’s spent with people you love, eating ALL the mashed potatoes your heart desires.
– Rachel See
It always works out that when this time of year comes around I really need the Thanksgiving holiday in order to force myself to have some gratitude. In my life, November is when my family is knee-deep in school busyness, our schedule is confusing with holiday events, things feel more expensive with colder weather and the increase in heating bills, boots, winter coats, and all those other things we don’t have that I suddenly need to buy, and gloomy days don’t make my seasonal depression any easier. It’s hard to feel thankful for anything.
But then, the Thanksgiving holiday arrives. And it creates that space for all of us to stop and look at the big picture of our lives. I’m thankful that we’re going to have 3 days off of work and school. We are really lazy people when we can be home and it’s pretty wonderful. I’m thankful that technology has advanced enough to support projects like this website. It takes a lot of work to run, but it’s really amazing to think that 20 years ago (when I graduated from *cough* high school *cough*) something like this didn’t exist. We didn’t really buy things online back then. Ebooks weren’t a mainstream thing. Hell, we were still listening to music on CDs!
I’m really thankful to be surrounded by so many creative opportunities and be able to connect people to resources that they need to further their music therapy services. When I stopped practicing as a music therapy clinician 6 years ago, I wrestled with a lot of conflicting emotions. I felt like I was letting down the profession because I wasn’t working in it anymore. Clinical work sort of ran it’s course for me and I just didn’t want to do it. I had a baby and wanted to be a full time mom.
But connecting with the perfect partner (Rachel See) and creating a music therapy online bookstore allows me to keep in the profession. It gives me the honor to be surrounded by a group of hard working music therapists with really valuable information who just need a little help getting the word out. And I’m so thankful that we are all able to pool our individual talents to help each other… and all of that helps the greater music therapy community… and all of that helps all the music therapy clients. It’s an incredible feeling to know that you’re a cog in that machine and while it’s easy for me to get lost in the hustle of the day to day, it’s amazing to realize the magnitude of the big picture. Thank you everyone, for allowing me to be a part of it.
– Michelle Erfurt
