Welcome to my Blog

This Blog is a collection of my thoughts and experiences as a music therapist and human being working with people at the end of their lives in hospice. In my experience I have seen some amazing things- things that have given me a glimse of something bigger. I have learned that in our suffering, in our doubt, there is also room for beauty and a deeper sense of the divine. Music taps into the rhythms of the earth and at the same time transcends it. I want to share my experiences from the past and from each day moving forward. Hopefully one or two people will find it interesting. Please visit my Web-sites at http://www.nielsenmtbc.com/ or http://www.musictherapycd.com/



Please note that I take client confidentiality very seriously. Names and sometimes other details have been changed to protect the identities of my clients.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Silent November Air

Oh that moment each year... I step into the cold, silent November night air. No more crickets and frogs singing. No more night birds singing. Even the owls have left for the year. Stillness and silence. Nothing but the Erie sound of grain dryers in the distance. It's always a little moment of grief and gratitude for the summer that was, and a bracing for the winter to come.
 
Winter is a part of life, but as we move from autumn to winter, there is a sad goodbye to what was- a practice in letting go. Winter is a time when life pauses, with a hopeful promise it will resume. We hold the light in the darkness with a faith that life will begin again. The creatures of the earth will awaken and return again. Nature will be reborn. We will be reborn.
 
In this present moment of change we need to both mourn and celebrate the beauty of what has been, and what will be.
 
 
"In the cold and snow of winter, there's a spring that waits to be, unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see." ---- Hymn of Promise, Natalie Sleeth