[Verse 1]
When I was a child
My momma told me
"Boy
Don't you rush through your days"
"Hold on to your laughter and your questions"
"Let your bruises teach you the way"
Her hands in the dishwater
Steam on her glasses
Me on the floor with a toy
She said
"The world might break your little pieces
But it can't steal your joy"
[Chorus]
What they told me
Still talking in my head
All these voices
Living where the past ain't dead
Every chapter
Written in a different hand
What they told me
What they told me
Turned a boy to a broken
Better man
[Verse 2]
When I was a man
My woman told me
"Baby
You ain't made of stone"
"You carry your pain like a pocket knife
You never leave it at home"
Suit on the chair
Late nights at the table
Bills piled up in a stack
She said
"You keep walking like you're leaving
But you always circle back"
[Chorus]
[Bridge]
[low vocal register] When I was an old man
I sat there quietly
Talking to the cracks in the wall
"I gave away time like loose change"
"I tried to hold what I should've let fall"
[violin solo]
I told myself
"Son
Forgive your younger shadow
He did the best that he could"
"Love a little louder in the silence
And remember what was good"
[Chorus]