For the past year, I have been directing the music program at the Snyder Center for Aphasia Life Enhancement in Baltimore, Maryland. Using the members’ own words, I have written a song entitled “One Day at a Time” that reflects the determination and resilience of this inspiring group of people. Since February 2014, we have been rehearsing the song, and we will be performing the song at a number of events in Baltimore during the summer. Watching a group of people with aphasia as they sing a song that they helped to write never fails to remind me that anything is possible with the right outlook.
This is a song about aphasia written by people living with aphasia:
My mind is a box, and I’ve lost the key.
There are so many words inside of me
And I am wishin’ they’d try to listen.
If they’d open up my doors,
They’d know I’ve got a whole wide world
Of information and conversation.
Every day I try
To keep my spirits high.
One day at a time, I find new ways to share my mind.
There’s no mountain I can’t climb with my dedication.
Despite what it seems, yes, it’s still up to me.
Oh, the future is my creation.
It is what it is. It’s reality.
I talk to God and my family.
It’s my ambition to help them listen.
My mind is a box, and it’s filled with words,
But most of the time they go unheard.
If I believe it, then I’ll achieve it.
Every day I try
To keep my spirits high.
One day at a time, I find new ways to share my mind
There’s no mountain I can’t climb with my dedication.
Despite what it seems, yes, it’s still up to me.
Oh, the future is my creation.
‘Cause we are a family, we have a bond.
Though it’s hard, we keep carryin’ on.
My mind is a box and I’ve lost the key.
There are so many words inside of me,
And I am wishin’ that they would listen.
The words in my head don’t reach my tongue,
But there’s life in the air and it fills my lungs
And if I breathe it, I can achieve it.
Every day I try.
To keep my spirits high.
One day at a time, I find new ways to share my mind.
There’s no mountain I can’t climb with my dedication.
Despite what it seems, yes, it’s still up to me.
Oh, the future is my creation.
‘Cause we are a family, we have a bond.
Though it’s hard, we keep carrying on.
Though it’s hard, we keep carrying on.