Music Therapy with Miss Moon

" Change your thoughts and you change your world. "
~ Norman Vincent Peale

" Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. "
~ Leo Tolstoy

" We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. "
~ Buddha

Of course I'm aware that our thoughts are very powerful in determining how we see the world around us. I know it intellectually and I've blogged about it quite a bit here. But somehow all of that knowledge goes far out the window, careening into the ether whenever I am riding the subway.

Every negative stereotype about New York and New Yorkers can be witnessed by simply hopping the A train during rush hour. People push, and shove and act like they are the only people in New York City with somewhere important to go. And since I'm working an earlier shift that I have worked in the past, I am smack dab in the midst of all of this. I can see now that I was really very spoiled working the late shift, because I didn't have to deal with the frantic and apathetic energy of early morning strap handlers.

A few days ago, I was on the F train heading to work. It was the end of the week, and the trains were still packed as usual. I was sharing the pole with several other people who were all trying to be respectful of each others space and trying to be as comfy as possible to be on a sardine-can packed train.

A woman gets on on East Broadway and instead of finding a pole, she chooses to just stand where she got on, essentially using ANOTHER HUMAN BEING as a wall, or a door, I don't know what the heck she was thinking. Now, I don't think I need to say this human being wasn't me, or else this blog post would've been written from prison.

The woman in question (lucky wall lady) was another person sharing the pole with me. Her and I exchanged glances and I made a bit of room (what I could) to see if she wanted to move closer to avoid this oblivious woman. And despite this not happening to me directly, I was furious that this woman could be so blind to the fact that she just walked into a crowded train and really overstepped boundaries purely for her convenience.

I left the train at Broadway Lafayette, seething. And I started thinking about all the miserable, horrible people I encountered on the train in the past month, which made me more angry. I decided that I must have all these a-holes in my life because I am putting focus on them. I decided to think about the other people sharing the pole on the F train with me that morning, and I decided to send some peace to that poor lady who was so rudely treated. I hope sincerely that our exchange made the moment a little brighter.

So from now on, I'm going to let the negative experiences of my morning and evening commutes roll off my shoulders. I am going to focus instead on the moments that made me happy to be a mammal... like the man giving his seat up to a pregnant lady, like the cute guy who let me get on the train first like a gentleman. I am going to express gratitude for these moments in the hopes that more of them happen. Especially the cute guy one! LOL

The world keeps spinning and its up to us to decided whether we want to spin with it, or fight the movement. To sing a little ditty about it, here's today's Music Therapy with Miss Moon song pick from The Brand New Heavies.


The World keeps on spinning
The World keeps on spinning yeah
World keeps on spinning
The worlds keeps on spinning yeah

Hey, now I know you're gonna be okay
Time keeps on changing but I know we're gonna win anyway
Oh how I've done you wrong
There ain't a thing that I can say
to you to make it better
Sometimes we must be strong
You know that life goes on for us
If we cannot be together

Don't cheat yourself
Happiness is 'round the corner
It will come to you
So have faith in future love
'Coz there's heaven up above
When we think we've reached the end
The World keeps on spinning

Hey, you know that time can be a healer
So they say
We mustn't be afraid to let our lonely nights
become a brand new day
Oh how I've done you wrong
I couldn't offer you a hope or find a better way
This time we must be strong,
our friendship lasts beyond all else
don't let it fade away
Don't let it fade away