Music Therapy with Miss Moon

"Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy."
~ Norman Vincent Peale

This week is beginning with a lot of new opportunities for yours truly. After a month-long dry spell, I have two job interviews lined up for this week, starting today.

Proof positive that I am getting older and wiser is how I think about job interviews nowadays. Of course, I want to present myself in a positive light, and show each person I meet with that I am a hard-working, talented and competent candidate for the job. But a lot of the fear and the panic associated with job interviews don't effect me as strongly as they once had.

Lately, I've been approaching each opportunity to meet with someone regarding a position as a possibility to connect and find a match. If they don't hire me, I assume it wasn't a match, and keep it moving. Sure, it's frustrating when you don't find a match right away, but eventually, I will. And as I've discovered, it's usually very much worth the wait. For myself,and the the lucky company to add me to their ranks.

It's all about confidence. I am good at what I do, and I'm the type of employee that will positively contribute her time, energy and creativity into her job. So I walk into each job interview knowing this with certainty. Hopefully it's something that will resonate with the people interviewing me. Because, and I say thing quite humbly, I am a super woman! Which leads me to this week's song choice for Music Therapy with Miss Moon...

I had to choose Alicia Key's amazing anthem "Superwoman", a song that will be guiding my steps this week, as I venture forth to find my destiny. May it inspire and uplift all the superwomen and supermen reading these words!



Everywhere I'm turning
Nothing seems complete
I stand up and I'm searching
For the better part of me
I hang my head from sorrow
state of humanity
I wear it on my shoulders
Gotta find the strength in me

Cause I am a Superwoman
Yes I am
Yes she is
Even when I'm a mess
I still put on a vest
With an S on my chest
Oh yes
I'm a Superwoman

For all the mothers fighting
For better days to come
And all my women, all my women sitting here trying
To come home before the sun
And all my sisters
Coming together
Say yes I will
Yes I can

Cause I am a Superwoman
Yes I am
Yes she is
Even when I'm a mess
I still put on a vest
With an S on my chest
Oh yes
I'm a Superwoman

When I'm breaking down
And I can't be found
And I start to get weak
Cause no one knows
Me underneath these clothes
But I can fly
We can fly, Oh

Cause I am a Superwoman
Yes I am
Yes she is
Even when I'm a mess
I still put on a vest
With an S on my chest
Oh yes
I'm a Superwoman

Music Therapy with Miss Moon

“To wish you were someone else is to waste the person you are.”

Happy Monday, everybody! Last week I encountered something that was pretty powerful for me, that inspired my song choice for this week's Music Therapy with Miss Moon. A tough week at work, coupled with picking the pieces after the end of my engagement and five year relationship had me feeling like the weight of the world was on our shoulders. After work one day, I stopped to have a cigarette before heading on the train when I was approached by a young woman who was 19 years old.

She approached me quite hesitantly to bum a cigarette and asked if I minded if she joined me for a smoke. I said of course not and we fell into a conversation about our lives. It was very much like talking to my 19 year old self, as she talked about the fears and concerns she had for her future. I too had those feelings, along with an amazing sense of opportunity.

As she poured her heart out to me, a stranger, about her worries about getting into the right school and whether her life would be happy, I remembered how hesitant and unsure of myself I was at 19.

I am a far happier woman today at 34 than I was then, despite being newly single and tired and in desperate need of a vacation. I wouldn't trade places with her for the world.

I told her that everything I've done, for better or worse, have ultimately made me the woman I am today. And that woman is awesome. I told her that her future begins 30 seconds from now, so what's the use in dwelling in the fear of it.

I hope that my words of encouragement reached out to her that night, and I dedicate this song, a song that I loved very much at her age, to her wherever she is. Here's "Dancing Nancies" by the Dave Matthews Band. It's a song about pondering what life would be like if you were someone else, as I have, and I'm sure we all have. Let it serve as a reminder to recognize how wonderful we all are, despite wishing we were more at times.

Could I have been
A parking lot attendant
Could I have been
A millionaire in Bel Air
Could I have been Lost somewhere in Paris
Could I have been
Your little brother
Could I have been
Anyone other than me
Could I have been
Anyone other than me
Could I have been
Anyone other than me
Could I have been
Anyone

He stands touch his hair his shoes untied
Tongue gaping stare
Could I have been a magnet for money?
Could I have been anyone other than me?

Twenty three and so tired of life
Such a shame to throw it all away
The images grow darker still
Could I have been anyone other than me? Then I
Look up at the sky
My mouth is open wide, lick and taste
What's the use in worrying, what's the use in hurrying
Turn, turn we almost become dizzy

I am who I am who I am who am I
Requesting some enlightenment
Could I have been anyone other than me?

Sing and dance I'll play for you tonight
And thrill at it all
Dark clouds may hang on me sometimes
But I'll work it out then I

Look up at the sky
My mouth is open wide, lick and taste
What's the use in worrying, what's the use in hurrying
Turn, turn we almost become dizzy

Falling out of a world of lies
Could I have been dancing nancy
Could I have been anyone other than me?

Music Therapy with Miss Moon

Everything you need in life begins with you. It's biological: your body needs oxygen to survive, so you breathe... your body craves rest, so you sleep. And it doesn't stop with our basic bodily functions. LOL

We spend so much of our lives, straining to hang on to just a finger's length grasp of what we want, when there are more effortless ways of getting it.

This is what this week's Music Therapy with Miss Moon is all about. "Love" can represent anything you aspire for, or it can be finding the one that fills your heart with joy. Take the energy out of pulling and fighting and use it to lifting yourself up. Meditate, read, laugh, cry, feel and grow. As you lift yourself up, you'll recognize you won't have to stretch and pull anymore, as you've reached a height where the love (or the job, or the vacation, or the life) that you want is right in front of you.

I hope you all will enjoy "Love Will Find Me" by Little Jackie.



My life thus far has been held together
by band aides and safety pins,
nothin quite fits but I'm still tryin
to squeeze my body into it,
I've been frontin, I've been wantin
someone who fits me effortlessly,
with ease and room to spare,
cause I've endured some wear and tear

with all these meaningless love affairs,
fake smiles and dishonest laughter,
fast forward to the morning after
I'm all dolled up lookin like a disaster

I just wanna wash off the lipstick
take off the stilletos
play my music and get with my own flow
and love will find me eventually
I'm gonna dance with my shadow
I'm goin all out, never forgettin what I'm all about
and love will find me eventually
you just wait and see yeah

I'll just sit here and look real cute
while he buys me drinks I'll look for an escape route
grab my purse and exit through the back door
get in my car put the petal to the floor and
I'll fly home singin out loud
life's too short so get off my cloud,
if I can't be myself
I don't wanna be with nobody else.

I just wanna wash off the lipstick
take off the stilletos
play my music and get with my own flow
and love will find me eventually
I'm gonna dance with my shadow
I'm goin all out, never forgettin what I'm all about
and love will find me eventually
you just wait and see yeah

cause they always just crash and burn
crash and burn, when will I learn

to stop lyin, stop hidin, quit cryin stop tryin

I just wanna wash off the lipstick
take off the stilletos
play my music and get with my own flow
and love will find me eventually
I'm gonna dance with my shadow
I'm goin all out, never forgettin what I'm all about
and love will find me eventually
you just wait and see yeah

Music Therapy with Miss Moon

Happy Monday, everybody!!! After a weekend that has been much about self-love and acceptance for me (More on that later during the week, promise!), and following yesterday's Be Blessed post, I wanted to pick a Music Therapy with Miss Moon song that would be the perfect anthem for the unapologetic love of oneself, couple with a bit of an "eff you" to those who dare to say you shouldn't... especially the mainstream media. But where would I find such a song?

Fortunately, my beloved Pirate Sistahs came to the rescue, and shared an amazing discovery, and I must say, the perfect song for today. I hope you all will enjoy "Beauty is Made" by Subject to Change, off their wonderful (and so slept on!) album, Womb Amnesia.



Beauty is Made

So how do I look?
Am I showing enough leg?
Is my dress tight enough,
Are my lips cherry red?
So how do I sound?
Is my voice soft enough?
Don't I purr when you're loving,
Don't I Weep When you're rough?

So how do I do?
Am I far enough behind?
Don't I do what you tell me,
Don't I worship your mind?
So how does it feel to see me so meek?
Does it make you feel strong to make me feel weak?

Beauty is made... She is not born
Beauty is raped, beaten and scorned
Beauty is her
Beauty is me
Beauty is all you want us to be

So how do I feel,
When you're rubbing me down?
Don't you like me soft?
Don't you like your sugar brown?
So how do I taste,
Are my kisses like wine?
Is my love like poison when it makes you feel fine?

Beauty is made... She is not born
Beauty is raped, beaten and scorned
Beauty is her
Beauty is me
Beauty is all you want us to be

Down on my knees,
Praying to the God of Beauty
Buying to please,
Glory to the God of Beauty
I've consulted a surgeon,
I'm binging and purging,
I'm just doing what I'm told
I'm just scared of growing old
Keep me in the mirror
Keep me masked in fear
Erase my face so I can't see clear
You make beauty skin deep
Beauty is a piece of meat
Rape me with commercials, magazines and MTV
I'm as pretty as your politics
Pretty as pornography.

Beauty is made... She is not born
Beauty is raped, beaten and scorned
Beauty is made

I feel pretty, oh so pretty
Pretty f*cking useless,
La la la la la la la

Be Blessed: And Love the Skin You're In...

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it."
~ Confucius

“The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.”
~ Carl Jung

“I am so beautiful, sometimes people weep when they see me. And it has nothing to do with what I look like really, it is just that I gave myself the power to say that I am beautiful, and if I could do that, maybe there is hope for them too. And the great divide between the beautiful and the ugly will cease to be. Because we are all what we choose.”
~ Margaret Cho

Be Blessed: And Chill....................

"There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills."
~ Buddha

"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt”
~ William Shakespeare

“Doubt yourself and you doubt everything you see. Judge yourself and you see judges everywhere. But if you listen to the sound of your own voice, you can rise above doubt and judgment. And you can see forever.”
~ Judge Nancy Lopez

While I wish I could say that I am 100% optimistic and am always aligning my thoughts to positive vibrations... I have days lately when I feel like everything I do is wrong, that everything I say is being misconstrued and that I am the most unlikable, loathsome human being to ever walk the streets of Bed-Stuy. Of course people do not chase me around Fulton Street with pitchforks and torches, so I know I'm cool, but it's gotten to the point when I actually found myself recently saying internally, "Audrey, Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillllllllllllllll!!!!!".

I had let doubts about myself give way to feeling wretched for days, and it took me realizing I need to let it go, that I started to feel better. I know the truth about who I am, and I am a damn good woman who is getting better and better every single day! What helped me get back to that groovy feeling was the following excerpt courtesy of Iyanla Vanzant. I hope that it will resonate for you as much as it did for me.

The following is an affirmation. An affirmation is a statement that embodies the truth. If there is something you want to know about yourself or your life, faithfully and reverently repeat this affirmation three times and ask yourself the question. It is best to ask questions about yourself rather than asking about another person because their truth may be none of your business. Once the affirmation is repeated and the question asked, remain still and listen for the answer. If the answer does not come right away, have faith! Sometimes the truth is more than you can handle at the moment. At the right time, in the right way, the truth will make itself known to you.

I believe in the power of truth.
I believe in the presence of truth.
Truth cannot be buried or hidden.
The truth must be revealed.
I now experience the essence of truth as it moves through me.
The Spirit of truth now envelops me.
The Spirit of truth now envelops me.
I am filled with the light of truth.
I am filled with the power of truth.
I am filled with the presence of truth.
The truth is revealed to me now.


Until today, you may not have known how to get to the truth of a pressing matter in your life. Just for today, ask the truth to reveal itself to you. Remember that what you ask for, you will receive!

Today I am devoted to knowing the truth about myself and my life!

From Until Today!
by Iyanla Vanzant

Be Blessed: And Take a Moment to Meditate - Part Three

“Life is like a mirror, we get the best results when we smile at it.”
~ Anonymous

On most days, when I look at myself in the mirror, I am pleased and content with who is staring back at me. I see a woman who is growing older, and wiser and more sure of herself, and that's dope! There are those days, though, where Gollum is staring back at me (in my own head) - the most hideous thing imaginable. It's my goal to get rid of the Gollum days, between you and me.

Some of you may have your own version of Gollum days, and if by chance you're trying to dramatically lessen those days, this week's meditation is a good one. Entitled, "I Am", it serves as a affirmation of all of the beauty we have inside of us. So when Gollum is staring back at you, tell it to burn the road up with a reminder of all that you are!!!



This week, I will remember everything I am.

Be Blessed: And Stop Seeking Approval

" To seek approval is to have no resting place, no sanctuary. Like all judgment, approval encourages a constant striving. It makes us uncertain of who we are and of our true value. Approval cannot be trusted. It can be withdrawn at any time no matter what our track record has been. It is as nourishing of real growth as cotton candy. Yet many of us spend our lives pursuing it.”
~ Rachel Naomi Remen

"People who want the most approval get the least and people who need approval the least get the most."
~ Wayne Dyer

“We can secure other people's approval, if we do right and try hard; but our own is worth a hundred of it, and no way has been found out of securing that”
~ Mark Twain



I'm happy when I'm liked... I'm also happy when I'm not liked, and that's a new attitude for me.

Like many, I zealously tried to be widely liked and accepted, at the detriment of my own self-worth in my teens. I spent so much time defining myself by how many people liked me, and how many friends I had.

In my early twenties, I recognized that it was the quality of the people surrounding me, not the quantity. But that didn't stop be from letting toxic people in my life. They weren't good friends, or good for me, but they liked me... so that must mean something.

The best lesson I ever learned was that someone's feeling about you have NO IMPACT on who you are. I know I am a good woman! If you agree, cool... if you don't agree, that's cool too!

In closing, I want to share some powerful words from Marianne Williamson, used by Nelson Mandela in his 1994 inaugural speech. When I first read these words, many years ago (Special shout-out to my Pirate Sistah and Bad-ass Blogger, Simone for sharing it!) it knocked my socks off and affected me in a profound way. When writing this post, I could't think of a better way to drive this message of self-acceptance home.

When we seek out the approval of others, we send a message to ourselves that there is something lacking, something incomplete.... when in reality, we are all very whole, ever-evolving, beautiful... and blessed.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us.

And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Today, I recognize that I approve of myself and that's all that matters.