Musings on Troubles...

Back when I was a kid we didn't use seatbelts if we had them. I would lay in the back window of my Granddaddy Coy's Chrysler Imperial where it was warm and I could see where we were going and where we had been. We put metal skates on our shoes and tightened them with a metal key. Then we went as fast as we could everywhere. I even got in trouble for wearing them in the halls of Homewood-Flossmoor High School my senior year of high school! So skating was a big thing for at least 10 years of my life. I don't remember falling while skating but I do remember Mom brushing gravel out of my hands, knees and arms. I do remember hitting ice hard when ice skating on the pond down the street, across from Algonquin Elementary. Ice hurts when you are going fast and hit it hard. It shreads gloves, clothes and skin.

The most fun we had in the winter time was taking sleds and boxes and anything that would slide on snow and ice to 'Frankensteins Hill.' We called it that but in retrospect it was probably a utility building for the neighborhood. We just told the littler kids that's where Frankenstein lived. We lived on a little neighborhood street called Algonquin, like the school. Not a lot of traffic used it, but whatever cars did come down that street, were big ones. This was the late 1960's and compact car weren't invented other than the VW bug, that we knew of.

Now in suburban Chicago, in an 'All American Town' like Park Forest IL, when it snowed it dumped feet of the stuff which was super fun for kids! Snow, a hill and things to sit on that would slide, kept us busy for hours, days, weeks and months! The snow plows would push the street snow and ice onto the sidewalks creating a wall to keep us from flying into the street. Or it would have, if we genius types hadn't brought shovels to carve breaks in the wall. That way you could slide all the way down Frankenstein's Hill, through the snow wall and across the street. Way better adventure! We were wise enough 4th graders to post sentries at the bottom to warn of cars coming, in which case we would wait for the danger to pass then tear down the hill again. Super fun! Don't know how many times we missed the break in the wall and collided with said wall or how often we hit the break at enough of an angle to toss us from our sleds, dumping us onto the icy asphalt.

Then, there were bikes we rode, dares we took, and sports we played with no protections that are common now like helmets, knee and elbow pads. Just surveying the residual damage I can see in scarring and shin dents I am pretty sure this active kid took more than her share of normal daily kid activity abuse. That and the fact my brother Derek and I are on every page of Dad's x-ray log book for years. One or the other of us were always getting phalanges, joints and various bones x-rayed to see what we had done that time.

I spent most of the summer after 4th grade in a crabapple tree reading books, eating crabapples and throwing them at people and passing cars. I was a rabid tree climber. I used to play in Mike Furr's willow tree and even some poplar trees in our yard and all kinds of things by the elementary school. And we lived for the Aqua Center and swimming in the hot, sticky summer time! Have no idea how many times we fell running on the wet concrete, or hit our heads on the bottom, diving in too shallow of water.

It was a fun, carefree time, full of adventures. I didn't even mention the railroad tracks, concrete culverts and such we weren't supposed to be playing on... My brothers and I were very active kids. We left in the morning and were gone til dinner and Mom had no idea where we were, doing what!

But now, decades later, when I deal with chronic pain and loss of mobility and the effects of multiple brain injuries I have a couple of theories you can quote.

If you were ever a kid, you have a brain injury.

If you are awake you have ADD.

Who in this crazy, complicated, perpetually moving world isn't highly distracted by everything around them? It has to be the ambient cause of unlimited daily stress. Judging by the things we do to ourselves to try to feel better, it's out of control. I have found a few things that help without side effects. Saying NO. Getting chiropractic care, massages, acupunture and many other healthy modalities. Eating less of nasty things and more of 'good for me' things. Growing flowers, herbs and food plants. Spending time with the people I like to be with. Being creative. Consistently listening to The Listening Program and other ABT music. Getting outside and away from the computer. The last is a tough one, since I work 40 hours a week in front of one, then come home to do school work on another one and keep in touch with friends all over the world through it too.

Would love to read your comments about what you did as a kid and what you do to get rid of stress and chronic pain and the like...

High pitched noise... Argh!

So this blog has nothing to do with the beauty of flowers or the joy I get in designing fabulous flower baskets. I put this picture in here to give me moments of zen when talking about how irritated I get sometimes with noise and commotion and too many things happening at once and stuff like that.

Because when I hit week 7 of The Listening Program my nerves started to unravel and by week 8 I wanted to hurt people. Why in the world would listening to classical music, recorded in high definition by amazing professional musicians do that to me, you might ask? Well I'll tell you. It's pretty simple. I have spent the last few decades avoiding high pitched noise. All of it that I possibly can.

My children will tell you that is the fastest way to get me to bark at someone is to play high pitched music loudly or squeal or scream even in fun. I hate it. I don't like sopranos, snare drums or piccollos. I don't like picollos so much I can't spell piccolo. Well, yes I can, but the sound of one, makes me crazy. Or violins, oboes and clarinets.

I have a low voice. It's nice and melodic and I played French Horn, absolutely beautiful instrument and I love classical Spanish guitar, but low tones everywhere is my preference. I grew up in the 70's and we cranked the bass and turned the treble off. OFF!!!

So now, I get the weeks, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, & 14... all high spectrum music, in my headphones and holy crap I don't like it! I'm using bone conduction to listen because at least I was wise enough to get the bone conduction system in the first place. Now I can use the amplifier to turn the bone conduction up to 8 and the volume down to 4 and almost tolerate it. Mozart was a young man when he wrote this stuff. If he had been over 50 he would never have done this to himself.

Now, oddly enough, perhaps because I adjusted the volume and possibly because I broke my listening into 15 minute segments instead of 30 minutes straight through and maybe because I supplemented with kinder gentler music like De-Stress and Peaceful Baby and the Full Spectrum Prelude and because I love run-on sentences, (Breathe Here!) I made it through weeks 8, 9 and 10 and didn't implode. I can listen to 30 minutes straight through as a go back through CD 10, in week 11 and not hurt people or even want to for the most part.

If you would like to know the science behind The Listening Program and why I appear to be torturing myself with it, just ask!

More with my little friend listening to music...

As an intuitive I sense energy constantly around me and this little girls energy was like none I had ever experienced before. I'll try to put it into words as it was magnificent. It was as if the little girl on my lap was not there but tethered and far away. Connected but only physically. All the rest of her was elsewhere and very intense, intelligent and powerful. I have sensed some interesting energy in people before but never anything quite like her.
I sensed she would love the music I liked to listen to from The Listening Program and knew I had it handy in my bag. I've heard that people say autistic kids won't tolerate headphones but knew that wasn't true with her. I put a pair of headphones on my head. She pushed her head into my face unbothered by the headphones touching her face. I plugged another set of headphones, bone conduction headphones into my CD player with Classic 1 in it and turned it on. Holding the headphones near her right ear she leaned it to them to hear better and I set the headphones on her head adjusting them so the ear speakers were over her ears while the bone conduction headphone sat on the top of her head. She still rubbed my wrist and played with my necklace. While she listened to the first musical piece I turned an iPod on, with all The Listening Program choices on it and turned it to the first session with nature sounds. Gently I unplugged her headphones from my CD player and into the iPod.
We were all watching her now as this was all new to her and she was accepting the experience!
Then she jerked her head to the left and almost immediately to the right! "She's following the birds," I said as TLP is recorded in spacial surround and music and nature sounds will move through your head from 5 different areas while listening! Her mother and her 2 occupational therapists got up and moved so they could see her face as they had not seen her do this type of thing before!
She was no longer fidgity but totally focused on her listening. She was leaning forward on my lap, looking forward with a new expression on her face. "She's smiling!" her mother noticed!
As the music session moved from the gentle beginning 'A' portion to the active 'B' portion, she slipped off my lap and started walking away with the headphones still on. I had to grab the equipment to follow her! It is not uncommon for her to walk around exploring, her mother mentioned. Then she ran into the next room and I had to run after her still holding the equipment. Now there was another miracle as I have had 2 knee surgeries and even have trouble walking some days!
By the time I knew the first 15 minute session was in the 'C' phase and ending I pulled out another chair to sit down. My little friend immediately moved to me, motioning to sit on my lap again. She didn't even try to take the headphones off when the music ended, so I played a piece of music off of Cheerful Baby from the Music for Babies library and then ended with a lullaby from Sleepy Babay for her. Setting the equipment down on the table, I took the headphones off her head and placed them there too. She sat on my lap a while longer then got up to explore.
I witnessed what felt like a miracle yesterday and yet I know break-throughs happen to kids and adults all over the world every day because of the magic of music and the bodies systems. I am touched and have a greater resolve to share what I know so as to make a difference in the lives of everyone I can touch.

Autism, Music And Energetic Connections

Yesterday I had one of the most spiritual experiences of my life which showed me how the work I'm doing truly effects people personally. I've worked with all kinds of busy professionals and parents all over the world, many, many of them dealing with issues of Autism. All my research and efforts were nothing compared to the real life experience of being the catalyst to helping someone who is on the Autism Spectrum!
Susan Snee and I met with Occupational Therapists for a school district yesterday afternoon. They had questions about The Listening Program from Advanced Brain Technologies. It was exciting to share my knowledge of this effective music based program with people who could help so many! But talking about it and actually seeing it work are completely different things!
Part way through our meeting a young mom came in with a very busy toddler and a little girl who didn't look at us; she looked up and to the right of us. She wore a bib although I'm guessing she was about 7 years old. She wondered the large room, touching the heat vents and chairs and tables.
Within minutes I sensed her behind me and turned to see her standing near but with no easy way to get through the tables and chairs to me. I sensed getting to me was exactly her intent so I reached my right hand out to her, palm up. She immediately put her hand in mine. I turned and put my left hand on the back of her right arm and she sipped through the small space making a motion to get on my lap. She snuggled in a bit, constantly touching my hand, running her fingers under my jacket cuff, for that skin to skin contact. With her other hand she felt the contours of my face and seemed to really like the pearl necklace I was wearing. She put her fingers in my mouth and I played with that, the way I would nibble on my grandkids. She pushed her head into my head and knowing head-pushing is a strong indication of bonding, I intuitively felt this was a special moment. Looking up to her mother's face I knew it was. (more to come)

Climbing the Walls s'more

And in Week 8 of listening to The Listening Program, the effort is making me climb the walls. It is high energy, high spectrum Mozart and I have reached a saturation place. Every time the heater kicked on in the office today I about went nuts! I had to go outside and get some air. Then I had to put closed headphones on, listening to nothing, just to drown out irritating sounds. I will keep listening because I have had significant things improve in the last 7 1/2 weeks. I sleep deeply and through the night. I go to bed and wake up at 6:19am. Don't know why 6:19am, but there ya go. And here's the kicker, I wake up rested and refreshed. That right there is worth the time and money to do TLP. And I'm thinking I should call it a night so I'm rested to deal with the annoyance of high spectrum music tomorrow. I knew this wouldn't be easy, but I still believe it will be worth it.