This is a Song of the Month write-up of
fewer
words

For Valentine's Day this year, here is one of the deeper LOVE SONG projects I have ever had the luxury and joy and honor of falling into.

It's also an interesting tale of how one song can, very unexpectedly--from all the way on one side of the country--lead to a song on the other side of the country.

This is a song of deep and abiding love between two partners, whose family is comprised of two loving parents and their two adopted-from-Guatemala daughters. 

THE STORY
Alan came to me wanting a song for his wife Gina that I could perform live for her at her 40th Birthday Party.  The goal was to blow Gina away in the presence of all the people who loved her best of all. As I listened to Alan talk about all that Gina is to him, a sense of this song began to emerge. Gina is and always has been a very powerful woman.  But  listening to Alan talk, it seemed to me that her power had evolved, as she had grown into her own womanhood, and wife-hood, and motherhood, in a unique and beautiful way. Alan explained how the first time he saw Gina in all her strength and certitude, he had been so blown away, he could barely think of a word to say. That lead to the opening lines of the song:
 
The first time that I saw you I was speechless
The way you wore your power like a bullet-proof vest

This month we are turning our focus to Laura. Laura gave herself an incredible 50th Birthday Present. 

She commissioned a song to celebrate the serene and centered place she was coming to in her 50th year. And, as always, there's a twist.

Due to a devastating accident, Laura has been in a wheelchair for the entirety of her adult life. You'd never know it to talk with her on the phone or sense how she comes across over the internet. And in fact, she asked, when I created her song, that it not be "all about that." Because SHE is not "all about that." But we did work this harsh and, ultimately, rather defining turning point, into the video that my sister-in-law, Anne, created for you for this Song-of-the-Month. We did so not in an attempt to "make it all about that," but as a way of helping to share and amplify the wonder of Laura and her journey, which has inspired me deeply.

ONCE UPON A TIME...
This is the story I told my two young songs Ben and Sam (8 and 5), when they were listening to this song (which contains the very adult concepts of devotion, despair, and redemption) and wondering what it was about.

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess. She met a handsome prince, and they fell in love! The prince asked the princess to be his bride, and she happily agreed. The royal wedding came on a beautiful hot, sunny day in the month of June. There was much merriment as all those who loved the prince and the princess gathered. "I love you heart and soul, forever and ever," said the Prince. "I love you heart and soul forever and ever," said the princess. For that was their secret, special incantation of love. Just as the wedding party was about to head inside, the skies turned a deep, frightening black color. As they walked inside to the royal reception hall: BAM!  the blackness dropped down HARD, out of the sky, and onto the royal garden where their wedding had been performed. It was a gigantic, menacing storm. The princess stood from within the safety of the royal reception hall and looked out at the storm and wondered aloud: "What does this mean?! Is it something bad?" But the prince knew better. "Oh, no, it's something good! The rain only came once it was time for us to go inside!"  "Oh," said the princess, and she proceeded on to the rest of her wonderful royal wedding day.

What I have come to find over the years is that I basically get requests for two kinds of songs: the kind that tug at your heart strings and make you cry, and the kind that are very silly.
 
Max, an elementary school principal from NYC, called me up--all devious and excited--asking for a song for his bride Eve, for Valentine’s Day. I was raring to go. When we got into the interview, though, I learned that the assignment was more challenging than I might have at first guessed. Max wanted three things:

THIS MONTH'S STORY IS DELIVERED IN PODCAST 
This month I tell you the Song of the Month story verbally, in a recorded podcast-style video. Learn about how Chris lost his mother on Thanksgiving Day two years ago, and how I wrote this song for him on Thanksgiving day last year. This Thanksgiving, I am sharing it with you.