Music Therapy with Miss Moon

"You are you. Now, isn't that pleasant?"
~ Dr. Seuss

"All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own."
~ Johann von Goethe

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."
~ Oscar Wilde

"A girl should be two things: who and what she wants."
~ Coco Chanel

Working in a super fashion-conscious neighborhood in Manhattan is great for fashion inspiration and people watching. It's not so great for the self esteem when you aren't 5'11 and built like a supermodel.

I admit to days where I feel horribly out of place walking the streets of NoHo. And believe me, some of the inhabitants contribute to that feeling with their utter disbelief that I'm dare to breathe within 5 feet of them.  Me being so.... not them. Days like that, I just want to stick a paper bag over my head and find a bell tower somewhere to dwell permanently in. I hate days like that.

So I am going to change the way I think about myself on those days. I am going to believe that I am just as fly and fabulous as they are... there is just MORE fabulous me to behold. And I think we all should feel that way about ourselves. Short, tall, fat, thin, big nose, small nose, whoever and however we are. We should strut.

And today's song choice for Music Therapy with Miss Moon is a strutting song that celebrates everything that we are, despite what the haters may say! I hope you all will feel a little bit more fabulous today with Janelle Monae and Erykah Badu's "Q.U.E.E.N."



Girl, this is crazy... let me tell you

I can't believe all of the things they say about me
Walk in the room they throwing shade left to right
They be like, "Ooh, she serving face"
And I just tell 'em cut me up and get down
They call us dirty cause we break all your rules down
And we just came to act a fool, is that all right? (Girl, that's alright)
They be like, "Ooh, let them eat cake."
But we eat wings and throw them bones on the ground

Am I a freak for dancing around?
Am I a freak for getting down?
I'm cutting up, don't cut me down
Yeah I wanna be, wanna be Queen

Is it peculiar that she twerk in the mirror?
And am I weird to dance alone late at night?
And is it true we're all insane?
And I just tell 'em, "No we ain't" and get down
I heard this life is just a play with no rehearsal
I wonder will this be my final act tonight
And tell me what's the price of fame?
Am I a sinner with my skirt on the ground??

Am I a freak for dancing around?
Am I a freak for getting down?
I'm cutting up, don't cut me down
Yeah I wanna be, wanna be Queen

Hey brother can you save my soul from the devil?
Say is it weird to like the way she wear her tights?
And is it rude to wear my shades?
Am I a freak because I love watching Mary? (Maybe)
Hey sister am I good enough for your heaven?
Say will your God accept me in my black and white?
Will he approve the way I'm made?
Or should I reprogram, deprogram and get down?

Am I a freak for dancing around?
Am I a freak for getting down?
I'm cutting up, don't cut me down
Yeah I wanna be, wanna be Queen

Even if it makes others uncomfortable
I will love who I am
Even if it makes others uncomfortable
I will love who I am

Ohh, shake 'til the break of dawn
Don't mean to sing so tough, I can't take it no more
Baby, me and tuxedo crew; pharaohs, it ain't my tomb
Crazy in the black and white; we got the drums so tight
Baby, here comes the freedom song, too strong we moving on
Baby this melody will show you another way
Been 'droids for far too long - come home and sing your song
But you gotta testify because the booty don't lie
No, no, the booty don't lie, oh no, the booty don't lie

Yeah.. yeah, let's flip it
I don't think they understand what I'm trying to say
Haha, yeah, uh, I asked a question like this

Are we a lost generation of our people?
Add us to equations but they'll never make us equal
She who writes the movie owns the script and the sequel
So why ain't the stealing of my rights made illegal?
They keep us underground working hard for the greedy
But when it's time pay they turn around and call us needy
My crown too heavy like the Queen Nefertiti
Gimme back my pyramid, I'm trying to free Kansas City
Mixing masterminds like your name Bernie Grundman
Well I'm-a keep leading like a young Harriet Tubman
You can take my wings but I'm still goin' fly
And even when you edit me the booty don't lie
Yeah keep singing, I'm-a keep writing songs
I'm tired of Marvin asking me What's Going On?
March to the streets 'cuz I'm willing and I'm able
Categorize me, I defy every label
And while you're selling dope, we're gonna keep selling hope
We rising up now, you gotta deal you gotta cope
Will you be electric sheep? Electric ladies, will you sleep?
Or will you preach?

Music Therapy with Miss Moon

" To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

" Be what you are.  This is the first step toward becoming better than you are."
~ Julius Charles Hare

" Let the world know you as you are, not as you think you should be, because sooner or later, if you are posing, you will forget the pose, and then where are you? "
~ Fanny Brice

I am never going to be an effortless beauty, like the women walking around SoHo everyday. Outfits I just throw together do not look like they could grace the cover of a magazine. They look like I just threw them together! LOL

This was a startling realization I made years ago that gave me a serious case of the bummers. While I have grown to accept the fact that I will always be a little too sophistiratchet to be considered polished, I can honestly say that until recently, I never embraced the fact or attempted to love it. And what's not to love? It's who I am.

It's easy to floss and strut about the things that ROCK about you: Your killer sense of humor, your dimples, your dance skills, etc. But the herp derp things about yourself are somewhat hard to embrace! LOL

For this week's song choice for Music Therapy with Miss Moon, I hope that Ani Difranco's "Pick Yer Nose" will inspire you to embrace all that you are, the glamorous and the geeky.



How come I can pick my ears
but not my nose
who made up that rule anyway
how can you say that's the way it is
that's just the way it goes
why don't you decide for yourself
what you can do
and what you can say

how come I can pick my friends
but not my enemies
what is it about me that offends
what is it about me
'cause you know I'm only five foot two
and I'm giggly wiggly
tell me again, what did I do
why are you scared of me
I fight with love
and I laugh with rage
you've gotta live light enough
to see the humour
and long enough to see some change

I think shy is boring
I think depressed is too
I think pretty is nice
but I'd rather see something new
all these plastic people
got their plastic surgery
but we got a big big beautiful
we got it for free
who you gonna be
if you can't be yourself
you can't get it from t.v.
you can't force it on
anybody else

you know they come to clear cut
they come to strip mine
they come for some of my big butt
my big brain
or just a little time
they wanna take me out to dinner
think I'm a bitch if I don't go
seems like the people who actually like me
won't allow me to say no
your idea of a conversation
is the third degree
but I don't really know you
and I don't really want to talk about me

'cause I'm not going to pretend
that I don't pick my nose
that's just the way it is, my friends
that's just the way it goes
this is who I am
what I do
and what I say
if you like it, let it be
if you don't, please do the same
I fight with love
I laugh with rage
you gotta live light enough to see the humour
and long enough to see some change

Music Therapy with Miss Moon

"Every time you don't follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness."
~ Shakti Gawain

" I think of life itself now as a wonderful play that I've written for myself, and so my purpose is to have the utmost fun playing my part. "
~ Shirley MacLaine

" There is only one you for all time. Fearlessly be yourself."
~ Anthony Rapp

If I (God forbid!) were to die today, I hope sincerely that a major point that I've conveyed in writing Miss Moon's Musings is that it's okay to be yourself. As flawed and dorky as I am today, I am so much happier than the woman I was ten years ago... Who feared being shunned or misunderstood. Who feared being alone and branded an outcast, so she became the women she thought people wanted her to be.

When I started working on myself (Believe me, that's an on-going process!) in my mid-twenties, gradually the woman I am today starting emerging. And you know what? I lost a lot of people I considered "friends" in the process. They couldn't hang with the Audrey I was becoming, and that's cool.. because I didn't want to hang with anyone who could not support my growth and see it for what it was... a miracle.

The moment you choose to buck the system and say, "I'm going to do something wonderful and follow my heart", is the moment where you start to see the world clearer. And I recognized that people who wave their freak flags high are the people who make life more interesting. They are the people who truly inspire.. just through their example. They are people like you, and like me... and I think that it's time we celebrate being ourselves!

So this week's Music Therapy with Miss Moon is a celebratory song that I hope you all will enjoy. Here's Estelle (with some help by Janelle Monáe) with "Do My Thing"

hey hey hey hey
hey hey hey hey
hey hey hey hey
hey hey hey hey

i wear my clothes like this because i can
i wear my hair like this because i can
i walk around like this because i can
and i do my thing like this is who i am
if you are expecting me to give you an apology
for being nothing like you used to used to
hold your way hold your breath and concentrate
keep holding till your face turns blue

my burning, we just don't know just where i am going
my flow it ain't your flow,just i know, just how i'm flowing
i do my thing i do my thing
please feel free to hate everything
said ima do my thing
i do my thing i do my thing
say what you want cause this one ain't gonna change
i do my thing i do my thing
ha ha ha ha ha ha

i can't wear my clothes like you because i am not
i can't do my hear like you because i am not
i can't walk around like you because i am not
i can't do my thing like you well that just ain't hot
and if you are expecting me to give you an apology
for being nothing like you used to used to
i held your way hold your breath and concentrate
keep holding till your face turns blue

my road, it ain't your road, but just don't know just where i'm going
my flow it ain't your flow,just i know, just how i'm flowing
i do my thing i do my thing
please feel free to hate everything
said ima do my thing
i do my thing i do my thing
say what you want cause this one ain't gonna change
i do my thing i do my thing
ha ha ha ha ha ha

you don't know where i am going so you think i am lost
i ain't on your page, ok so to you that means i'm lost
when i am dancing i am dancing to the beat of a drummer you don't hear and you can't see
so if i look offbeat to you, well the problem must be you not me
irregular irrelevant unusual but never uncool
you're not call for my close
you never get me, i don't get you
either a believer of the fact
that unique equals love
so i won't go into the vast with you
open your mind and speed up

my road, it ain't your road, but just don't know just where i'm going
my flow it ain't your flow,just i know, just how i'm flowing
i do my thing i do my thing
please feel free to hate everything
said ima do my thing
i do my thing i do my thing
say what you want cause this one ain't gonna change
i do my thing i do my thing
ha ha ha ha ha ha

Music Therapy with Miss Moon

"The whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be."
~ Oprah Winfrey

A few weeks ago when I was going on my walk, I was approached by a young woman on Fulton Street. It seems that they have opened a new palm reading business somewhere in the area and this woman came up to me because she felt compelled to tell me something... something of dire importance.

She said that there were people who are presently in my life who are not on my side. She warned that these people were wishing me ill in every endeavor I take and that I should immediately come with her to get a reading, which she would give to me for the low price of $20. I thanked her for her warning and advised that I had to continue what I was doing right now, which was something nourishing to my soul and I kept it moving. I wonder if her intuition was foggy that day, making her unable to sense two very important things about me:

1) I have a long history with women who use premonitions, tarot cards, and palm reading. I've known quite a few in my past. Truth be told, I've given a tarot card reading myself from time to time. I know that some are the real deal, but I also know that many use fear as a tactic. For all the curses I apparently have on my head, its amazing I'm still breathing! LOL

2) I am a woman with my own source of power. I honor that power, I cherish it, and I trust it. So I would never allow anyone to corrupt my spirit, and no amount of ill wishing could siphon that power from within me.

I'll tell you folks, evolution is an amazing thing. It was on another walk that this week's Music Therapy with Miss Moon song choice inspired me to think about my encounter. I thought about how I handled it at 34, in comparison to how I would've handled it at 24. Knowing the person I was then, I would've left that woman $20 poorer and richer in paranoia. LOL

Perhaps I do have "haters" in my life, perhaps I don't...but either way, so what? If he or she is hating me, they are wasting a lot of energy that could be devoted to something more important: like improving what's lacking in their lives so that they need not use me as a scapegoat! Regardless of their feelings, I am resolved to continue to do the work on myself, so that all of the amazing blessings in my life will continue to grow and blossom like a field of wildflowers.

This week's song is about doing just that... living a life on your own terms, without fear of what others may think or say about the choices you make. I hope you all will find inspiration from "Life is Real" from the amazing Ayo.



Some people say
That I'm to open
They say it's not good to let them know everything about me
And they say one day
They will use every little things against me
But I don't mind
Maybe they're right
That's just how it is and I've got nothing to hide.

I live my life
The way I want
I got nothing to hide
Nothing at all
Life is not
A fairy tale
They should know
That life is real
I live my life
The way I want
I got nothing to hide
Nothing at all
Life is not
A fairy tale
Life is about more
Cause life is real.

A friend of mine
Gave me an advice
He said be careful and think twice
Before you talk about your life
Protect yourself
Just keep quiet
The more they know the harder they try
To spoil your ways
To spread lies and
Even though I know he could be right I just said I..

I live my life
The way I want
I got nothing to hide
Nothing at all
Life is not
A fairy tale
They should know
That life is real
I live my life
The way I want
I got nothing to hide
Nothing at all
Life is not
A fairy tale
Life is about more
Cause life is real.

Me i be ayo
Ogunmakin fear no foe
I am real from head to toe
Just like my heart and my soul.
Me i be ayo
Ogunmakin fear no foe
I am real from head to toe
Like life is real and you should know.
Me i be ayo
Ogunmakin fear no foe
I am real from head to toe
Just like my heart and my soul.
Me i be ayo
Ogunmakin fear no foe
I am real from head to toe
Like life is real and you should know.