Music

I wanna be like a dragonfly,
going right where he wants
with a good feeling why
and kaleidoscopes for eyes
Everything's a little out of focus
and a lot more bright

I'll take the long way home
chase the feelings I really want and run from
Beg the steady hand of a firm decision
to hold me in like a weighted blanket
Help me stop my option shopping
Lay my head on one thing and sink into it

I wanna lie in a forest bed
find a song in the fog rising,
hear the tree frogs' echoed breath
Wonder how I ever could have wanted
what I wanted when it wasn't this
When it wasn't this

I'll take the long way home
chase the feelings I really want and run from
Beg the steady hand of a firm decision
to hold me in like a weighted blanket
Help me stop my option shopping
Lay my head on one thing and sink into it

I come before you, Hickory
And all your million perfect leaves
to ask a transference of peace
from each of them, please

I understand that all I have
that I can give you
is my attention

If I'm hearing what you're saying
the gift's already given
If I'm hearing what you're saying
the gift's already given

I come before you, Sycamore
shedding your bark to the forest floor
like a scroll with the wisdom from before
we wanted more

I understand that all I have
that I can give you
is my attention

If I'm hearing what you're saying
the gift's already given
If I'm hearing what you're saying
the gift's already given

My dad and his dad
On vacation week
Would buy colorful shells
And drop them on the beach
Sit back in their chairs
and belly laugh...
It's no wonder I still love searching for shells!

Oooooooo

Dad's dad, we call Pop,
he has a gravel driveway
That besides all the rocks
is filled with money
You can guess how the nickels
and pennies got there,
and imagine his face
while the grandkids filled our hands

Oooooooo

As a kid we would travel
to old Morefield Mines
There was garnet
and amazonite there to find
And a river of water
to rinse off the dirt--
what a way to find color
in the grit of the earth!

Oooooooo

There's four-leafed clovers
and there's dinosaur bones
and there's bright backyard birds
and nice words to a song
When your going gets rough,
be reminded of this:
There are beautiful treasures
you haven't found yet

May you find beauty the next place you look

We fell in love
In the darkness of the winter,
Like a bird on a frozen limb
Singing warmth into December
A candle lit your face,
and I knew this would be the place
I'd always go

You're the kind of conversation
that makes me feel alive
You're the cannonball
that breaks the surface tension on my eyes
You're the Northern Lights
that I've been trying to see for my whole life
You're the first thing that I think of,
and the last I see at night

Beneath falling stars,
our eyes were filled with wonder
A cathedral to the life
that our young love would discover
You looked to the right,
and said, Look far left,
and there we met

You're the kind of conversation
that makes me feel alive
You're the cannonball
that breaks the surface tension on my eyes
You're the Northern Lights
that I've been trying to see for my whole life
You're the first thing that I think of,
and the last I see at night

Now we've been around
the sun a few times over
Both loss and freshness have met us
And we've held each other closer
And over all this time,
I've found a couple ways to help describe

That you're the kind of conversation
that makes me feel alive
You're the cannonball
that breaks the surface tension on my eyes
You're the Northern Lights
that I've been trying to see for my whole life
You're the first thing that I think of,
and the last I see at night

I've got the ridgelines memorized like poetry
And the Valley breeze knows my name
The birds chase the sunset on to the west,
and I will follow them for all my days

Oh, Virginia mountains
Ancient rest for our tired eyes
Oh, Virginia mountains
Our Blue Ridge lullaby

You can take me from the mountains,
But you can't move the mountains from me
They'll say, Before you go,
here's some peace for the road,
we'll see you in your dreams

Oh, Virginia mountains
Ancient rest for our tired eyes
Oh, Virginia mountains
Our Blue Ridge lullaby

If I don’t know who to thank for the sky,
I will write the letter to my eyes,
And be glad to be alive
Under something miles high and miles wide

When my skin touches the earth
And finds her home in the dirt
I am grounded, saved, and cured
By something I never thought was pure

Ooooo

As the clouds temper up and pour out
And drop their fury on the ground
The space between us closes down
And the weather in my chest joins the sound

Ooooo

I found this song in the garden
The year we all were home
I was kneelin pickin flowers
Or weeds as you could call em
The wind was playing wind chimes
And tickling my skin
And I said, “Baby, these are hard times,
But we’ll find delight in them.”
I said, “Baby, these are hard times,
But we’ll find delight in them.”

Oh sky, oh land, oh birds overhead
Oh leaves on the trees
Oh my family and friends
I’ll try to stay smiling at what’s in my hands
‘Till we can be happy together again

I found myself in the backyard
In the middle of the night
I was staring at the stars
Trying to drink their ancient light
And like an ocean or a chorus
The Universe to me
Was singing, “Baby these are hard times,
But you’ll always harbor peace.”
It said, “Baby, these are hard times,
But you harbor all you need.”

Oh songs, oh stories, oh dog on my bed
Oh sun in the morning
My family and friends
I’ll try to stay smilin at what’s in my hands
‘Till we can be happy together again

Oh, together again

I’ve been pushing pixels with the rest
It’s been weeks and weeks somehow
Since my feet have left the ground
And this is how I get
Some kind of fog in my head

Then I came home to the love of my dog
And the man that we both call our very best friend
Yeah, I washed a couple dishes
And stared at the wall
And he wrapped his arms around me
Till I was myself again
Ohhhhh
Oh I came home

Driving down the highway through a storm
My nerves were shot to hell
I didn’t think I’d make it out
But I did
It always feels like the end

Chorus

We walked that line at least a hundred times
And infused it with our goodness
And all our inner critics stood silent
Cause everything was right when we were living in the moment

I think time is the eeriest dimension
Just last night I went and visited
The spot we almost kissed in
And you and I, we were not quite, we were not destined
But we left a trace behind, yeah I felt it
We left a trace behind, yeah I felt it
Ohhhhh

True love weighs as much as people say
And you can feel it when you’re near it
And family is fearless and holds the heavy spirit
And brings the light of day to the moments you can’t feel it

I think time is the eeriest dimension
Just last night I went and visited
The house my grandma lived in
With my grandfather and their children
And they left a trace behind, yeah I felt it
And they left a trace behind, yeah I felt it
Ohhhhhh

Ancient bones and all the empty thrones
Are as vacant as our minds get
Floating past the moment when all the past is present
The ghosts inside our phones are singing, “Memory is progress”

I think time is the eeriest dimension
Just last night I went and visited the history museum
And I found myself in an exhibit
She left a trace behind, yeah I felt it
She left a trace behind, yeah I felt it
Ohhhhhh

I’ve seen the sky so many ways here,
Spent a lucky lot of days here
And I’ll never have to wonder whether 
I savored it plenty
I bent and picked a piece of ivy
Off the thunder bridge on Water Street
To try and plant a guarantee
Of something living to take with me

This crisp air’s been in my lungs
a third as long as I’ve been breathing in
And I could swear my anatomy is softer
When I say goodbye, I’ll be as misty as a Shenandoah sunrise
And I will listen for my memories’ echoes in the mountain holler

It’s funny how a place can change ya
Wear you down and rearrange ya
Slow and patient as the ancient peaks
Wearing their way to the ground

This crisp air’s been in my lungs
a third as long as I’ve been breathing in
And I could swear my anatomy is softer
When I say goodbye, I know it isn’t gonna be the last time
That I fill up and empty my lungs in a mountain holler

There was a bird floating over
And she asked me how to fly
I could swear to you that as she flew
She looked me in the eye
She had no words to offer,
All she offered was her flight
And as this melody escapes my lungs,
I’ll join her in the sky

I’m not the oil on the canvas
I’m the one that holds the brush
And the genius of the universe
Boils in my blood

I am beauty of my own
In this body that my mother built
And I’m powerful enough
Powerful enough

They handed me a flower,
It was toxic, it is gone
I am planting a new garden
To replace the harmful one

I am beauty of my own
In this body that my mother built
And I’m powerful in love
Powerful in love

They asked me to be beautiful
Then told me not to know
As if any of my benefit
Was theirs and not my own
I am beauty of my own
In this body that my mother built
And I’m powerful in love
Powerful in love

I have decided that my love was not requited
You set me up to love and not be loved
My knees would go weak whenever you’d brush into me
As if you were a part of me connecting to the whole

I thought I needed you to feel peace

I built you a home
Inside my chambered chest, oh
And you were never gonna come
I guess believing it was good

For years I cared for you, though I intended not to
Was I foolish to assume that you could love me back?

I thought I needed you to feel peace
I built you a home
Inside my chambered chest, oh
And you were never gonna come
I guess believing it was good