I’m thinking of how we handle chaos in our lives. If you were on the show last night you saw how crazy it got when the internet went out. For me this chaos was in addition to watching the fires in New Mexico that could possibly threaten our summer cabins and trying to secure those and any keepsakes down there. Plus with summer coming on and my calendar back to full and filling more I’m feeling a lot more chaos. So how do we deal with this. Well, if you don’t find a way to deal with it you actually feel pain in your body and confusion in your mind. For me I have several ways to deal with it. The first way is to take a deep breath and remind myself that all is well even when it doesn’t seem to be. We each have our ways of separating ourselves from the immediate situation whether it be by meditation or prayer or even humor. This is very important. The second is just to assess what I can and can’t do and then make a plan of action. This at least gets me moving and not letting the peripheral stuff interfere. The third is to just reassure myself that the worst won’t happen and that it will all soon be just a memory. I also trust that everyone has enough understanding and compassion for each other that we will look out for each other and accept that we are all doing our best even if we fail. This mutual respect and trust keeps me going even when people aren’t holding up their end of the bargain. It’s not as critical as it sounds. I also have some sort of routine in place that I can fall back on that’s tempered by a lot of experience and thought. I don’t know if these steps are how you deal with chaos. Sometimes it’s thrilling, and sometimes is chilling. Life is exciting either way!
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What have I been up to?
I had nine senior facilities last week although I did have one that got messed up where I had it on my schedule and they didn’t. That was okay though. The other facilities were all a wonderful time.
My Thursday online show doing songs that shaped the people in my audience went really well - so well in fact that we’re doing a part 2 this week! I have such a great group of folks.
My Saturday online show for Philmont folks went really well too. You wouldn’t think that an online show that reunites a lot folks would be so fulfilling, but music and memory is just that powerful.
My Sunday online show was doing favorites at Matt and Deann Pujol’s house for Deann’s birthday, and it was a blast seeing folks in person and enjoying a meal and the show. As I wrote above it turned into a rollercoaster ride when the internet went out and we had to scramble to get back on. My little laptop doesn’t offer as much flexibility as my desktop does with all my tools around in my office, so I didn’t quite get it back up right - it ended up posting in the Facebook event for that night so it wasn’t shareable directly or possible for me to embed it on my website. Apologies if you missed it and aren’t on Facebook. It was still a lot of fun even through the chaos. I’ll plan better for that kind of failure next time. Happy Birthday, Deann!
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What am I up to this week?
I have 11 senior facilities the week, and I’m looking forward to all of them!
My Thursday online show 7-8:30 mountain time will be doing songs that shaped you again with a bunch more really great songs from all over the musical spectrum. We have such diverse tastes in our audience, so this will be a marvelous show. Come on by if you can!
My Sunday online show 7-8:30 mountain time will be favorites and requests as always. I promise it won’t be as chaotic as last week (at least I’ll be more prepared this time.) I’d love to have you share in the camaraderie and music.
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That’s it for this week. I’m taking a deep breath as we speak and trying to multitask. The experts say we can’t really multitask anyway!
Best,
Tom
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Who: Tom Munch
What: playing and singing an online concert of songs that shaped you 2
Where: facebook.com/tom.munch and tommunch.com/online-concerts
When: Thursday, May 19, 7-8:30 pm mountain time
Who: Tom Munch
What: playing and singing an online concert of favorites and requests
Where: facebook.com/tom.munch and tommunch.com/online-concerts
When: Sunday, May 22, 7-8:30 pm mountain time