Mom says, “go outside, go play a while”
The sun’s too strong to run
I wander till the light thins out
And the heat starts letting up
The yard gets quiet where I stop
The grass cools at my knees
So I sit down without thinking
Underneath the tree
Chorus
It’s more than just a tree in the yard
Standing through the years
A family tree with open arms
Long before I was here
⸻
I sit out there most afternoons
With a book against my knee
I read about a kind of love
That feels far from me
The leaves move slow above my head
The yard feels small and still
I dream about a life somewhere
Beyond this quiet hill
Chorus
It’s more than just a tree in the yard
Standing through the years
A family tree with open arms
Long before I was here
⸻
I’ve been gone a while, I take the turn
Up over that low hill
The sun breaks wide behind the tree
Like it always will
I see where limbs were torn away
The shape time left behind
But it’s reaching higher than it was
Still holding to the sky
The light pours through what weather bent
But couldn’t take it down
I see it standing as it is
Just strong, just standing now
Chorus
It’s more than just a tree in the yard
Standing through the years
A family tree that never moved
While I disappeared
⸻
I come back now with the one I loved
Back when I was young
We spread a blanket in the grass
Let our little one run
They laugh beneath the open limbs
Just like I used to do
I watch them find that same old shade
Like it always knew
Chorus
It’s more than just a tree in the yard
Standing through the years
A family tree that carried us
Through laughter, love, and tears
⸻
Bridge
Generation after generation
Has come to sit right here
Names we know and names forgotten
Every laugh, every tear
All those years carved into the grain
You can’t see them, but they’re there
Every memory held together
In the rings of that old oak tree
⸻
Final Chorus
It was more than just a tree in the yard
Standing through the years
A family tree that held my life
From first breath to last tear
I lived my days beneath its shade
I know where I belong
Lay me down under that old oak tree
Still standing just as strong
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