the song

Marley hasn’t spoken her first word yet that you can clearly recognize... she does point to the cat and says an attempt at kitty kitty, but it’s just kk. She mumbles and babbles and squeals a lot. We sing a lot too. I never noticed how all nursery songs share the same basic tune. Sing the ABC’s then Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and you will hear the familiar rhythmic pattern. Apparently Marley has too and one sweet day she hummed Twinkle with perfect staccato complete with “up above” with an open mouth ah ah ah ah exactly in the right place. I think we all laughed and felt in this moment the capacity of her brain to give us this wholesomeness to delicately box up in our memories. She has the hum down to a science now and I think almost unaware will cruise around furniture simply singing to herself. I’ll say this from a closet singer- I hope she never stops.

Moments can stop you in your tracks. Especially music. I watch the Today show. It’s usually background noise while we get ready in the morning. This past February was  super bowl time which can only mean one thing- commercials! February 2, the kids had gone to school already and I sat with Marley still sleeping watching the show. I can remember not really paying attention but I was looking at the screen.  Then I heard it. One baritone note followed by a lower one and a ticker on the bottom of the screen as a baby is lifted out of the hospital nursery bed. She has no feet and only one hand. The number is 1 in 997,500,000 odds of winning a gold medal. I remember sitting straight up as the air sucked into my lungs. I sat in awe unable to move for fear of hitting the remote and changing the channel. It ended with Lauren Woolstencroft, 8 x Paralympic Gold Medalist. Instantly she became my hero. I didn’t even realize I’d been holding my breath. I sat there and bawled.

See, I didn’t realize up to that point I had mentally limited my daughter. Truth. I saw modifications and limitations everywhere. As I hold my iPhone I think how will she be able to use it one handed as efficiently as anyone else and on and on. How, oh how? But the real question is how could I be so narrow minded. Think so small. That commercial wasn’t unique, but it was so full of hope, so full of amazement. The odds were there to remind us that she shouldn’t have been able to overcome. Because of people like me- people who think there’s no way. It was there to tell me that I am the problem. Not my daughter’s hand. If I got out of her way, she could do anything, defy odds placed by realistically narrow minded people. I say realistic because to be fair we all limit each other. Want to start a business- go for it. Want to climb a mountain- you got this. Want to ski one handed- Believe it. Be your own cheerleader. And never stop. And for goodness sake don’t listen to the people who say you can’t. Who with their own odds won’t run the marathon, or sing the song or dance in front of everyone. Odds are just that, a set of statistics that predict the possibility of something being done or not. They are not exact truth.

I Shazamed the song on the commercial as soon as it played and bought it immediately of course. I recorded the today show so I could share it with everyone I know. And then come Super Bowl Sunday it was the first commercial played after the game started. I relish in it the same now as I did then, and I am so totally in love with the advertiser I’ll never meet for changing my perspective. It almost made me want to buy that Toyota car it was talking eventually the sponsor of. Almost.

Here is Stronger than I’ve ever been, by Kaleena Zanders courtesy of YouTube (Click here).