That Smile - a song for Elsie

March is Cerebral Palsy Awareness month.

This year, we have something very special to share.

Cassi wrote this song for Elsie.

After much 'on-call' technical support from Dussy Boy, I was able to make this little video which includes pictures of our sweet Els, that show off that amazing smile of hers.

How blessed we are to have our sweet Elsie in our life to help put all the small stuff into perspective for us.

And thanks to Cassi for capturing the strength of our Elsie in a beautiful song.
Enjoy......

Lyrics-

1st verse:

What would you do

If you weren't like anyone else?

If the easy things

Weren't so easy?

What if it took you longer to do it?

You might feel sad and lonely.

You may just want to sit and cry.

How do you move above all that

chorus:

What do you do?

What could you do?

You smile that smile

That perfect smile.

You show them all

That life's worth living

And not to feel so sorry.

You smile that smile,

That perfect smile.

The one that melts us as your giving.

And leaves the heart

Filled with joy,

Why can't we all live that way?

2nd verse:

What if the sounds from your mouth came out different?

What if they couldn't

Understand you?

What if they treated you

Not like the others?

You might feel down

And not so special.

You may want to fight

Or get frustrated,

But what would that do?

What would that fix?

chorus again

last verse:

What if each small step

Was celebrated?

If your world was at your fingertips.

What if your beautiful

Face could change us?

You might just feel happy and proud.

You may want to show your

Light to the people.

That's what we need

In a world like this!

Chorus again

Oh let us all, be that way-ay!

How the song came to be:

A few weeks ago, Cassi came to me and said she wanted to write and song, but couldn't think of what to write it about.

I told her that all the great song are about something important to the singer, and are usually happy songs.

I asked her to think about what makes her happy.

She said that Elsie makes her smile all the time.

Then I started thinking that CP Awareness month was coming up....

So I told her to write down a song that we could share during the month of March.

I gave her a few guidelines.

I said she should have at least 3 verses and a chorus.

When writing the song, she would ask me about different words and how to say things so they made sense.

We worked together to make her words fit into a poem type form.

And she came up with this masterpiece.

But we had a problem.....I don't play any kind of music instruments.

No idea how to help her even start to put her lyrics to music.

I stressed about it.

But while google-ing one day, I came across jamstudio.com.

Cassi could get onto there and put chords into the music line, and it plays it back for you so you can come up with your own tune.

That is just what Cassi did.

The original song had a lot more chords in it.

But as she got playing it on her guitar (thanks to the help of her awesome guitar teacher) she narrowed it down to about 4 different chords.

Simple and beautiful.

(This song is the property of Cassidy Matthews)

Click on this link to learn and hear more from other families who live with someone who has Cerebral Palsy.

There are some amazing families out there.