lyrics

Anything At All

It all starts with a moment of excitement

You wouldn’t know was fleeting at the time

But eventually the silences speak louder than rejection

Anticipation stops expecting anything at all

 

Maybe it’s somehow I have left you speechless

More likely you just view it as a chore

But in the sense that you know very well that I’m a friend

It must mean “go away” more than anything at all

 

That’s the problem with communicating nothing

The message understood might well be wrong

If I’m assuming too much or playing the victim

Then it’s at your invitation to feel anything at all

 

You can stop me anytime you want to set the record straight

I’d prefer to let the truth speak anyway

Maybe then you wouldn’t have to be a ghost without a voice

In our boxes made of windows, hoping it meant anything at all

I can sense my heart has left my chest

To wander through a wilderness

On the outside of a place of rest tonight

 

So in spite of all my clarity

I’m leaning on depravity

To drag me through this darkness to the light

 

Come settle me down

Take all my hunger

I’m here taking dives and pointing my fingers again

I’m trying to trust, but I am mostly pretending

This tug of war, will it ever end?

 

Seems every time I’m looking back

Seeing where life took a track

Away from some other crooked way

 

Still analysis paralysis

Leads back to the hypothesis

“I won’t come out this time okay”

 

Come settle me down

Take all my hunger

I’m here taking dives and pointing my fingers again

I’m trying to trust, but I am mostly pretending

This tug of war …

 

Come settle me down

Take all my hunger

I’m here taking dives and pointing my fingers again

I’m trying to trust, but I am mostly pretending

This tug of war, someday, one day I might win

I’ve been running all the numbers in my head

Remembering some things that have been said

Taking stock of every situation that I’ve read

And the indicators amber, green, and red

 

What if I arrest

This passion in my chest

Hold the notion captive in my head

Maybe she will never frown

If I can’t drag her down

With the anchor tethered to my heart instead

With the anchor tethered to my heart instead

 

Still some part of me just wants to set it free

To find out what is really meant to be

Let her go and see if maybe she returns to me

Or I’m only seeing what I want to see

 

Would she put to rest

This great question in my chest

Captivate me with her smile again

Would the yoke be too lopsided?

Would I be a house divided?

If it cannot be, then Lord I understand

If it cannot be, please help me understand

 

Oh the fullness of my joy

Can never be destroyed

But this isolation’s driving me insane

I could use another friend

Even though my worth does not depend

On a song to break the shackle from the chain

On a song to break the shackle from the chain

 

If my passion’s gone astray

Please just let it burn away

Take the coal, cleanse my lips and I’ll obey

Take the coal, cleanse me lips and I’ll obey

Come closer brother, hear me

You don’t need to run so far ahead

That I can’t see you

 

How many times have we stood strong together?

Why would we now choose to stand alone?

Why would we ever?

Why would we ever?

 

You can build a city to tower over me, that’s okay

Just please don’t falter, my brother, I pray

 

How many times have we stood strong together?

Why would we now choose to stand alone?

Why would we ever?

Why did we ever?

 

I don’t care that we’re grown

We can still share the load

Should I let you take me in?

Or set me back untouched?

Dig out a trap to wait where you rush?

 

Should I make haste to dive in?

Give God an ultimatum

to determine to drown if I don’t swim?

 

I’ve been dancing the shoreline, waiting for when

Some kind of sign says it’s safe to go in

I’m a fearless child ’til the tide rushes in

I stop at the edge and turn back again

Just dancing the shoreline

 

Should I go down to my knees?

Let you steal the ground beneath?

Until there’s nothing to steal left underneath?

 

Should I build up castles of sand?

Entice you to move in

Though they cannot withstand or contain you within?

 

I’ve been dancing the shoreline, waiting for when

Some kind of sign says it’s safe to go in

I’m a fearless child ’til the tide rushes in

I stop at the edge and turn back again

Just dancing the shoreline

 

Is it me? Are the sharks in my head?

Are the rip currents something I have misread?

Could the rocks be to jagged inside?

Could I lose my step and get crushed by the tide?

Is it coming or going?

A year ago I almost flew the coop

Went off to start over somewhere new

Another town, another blue, blue sky

Falling on my head

Another place to make my bed

 

In West Virginia

Colorado

Maybe Montana

Or Alaska

Or West Virginia

 

Oh I want frequent flier miles

And leave my baggage by the turnstiles

But then I feel the shockwave from the tiles

The cold, cold tiles of my bathroom floor

As they wake me from my dreaming all the more

 

Of West Virginia

Colorado

Maybe Montana

Or Alaska

Or West Virginia

 

A year ago I almost flew the coop

And went off to start over somewhere new

I spend my days breaking my back while you count my might

My family is starving at home while you slumber each night

 

Come down from your perch, you’re a little man aren’t you?

Come down where we stand, you’re a little man aren’t you?

 

You can stand on my shoulders, try all you want to be tall

You can cut me to size, but you’d still have to climb sycamores

 

Come down from your perch, you’re a little man aren’t you?

Come down where we stand, you’re a little man aren’t you?

 

How could he choose you?

Knowing all the you do?

How could he want to

be a guest in your house?

Zacchaeus, you’re a little man aren’t you?

Oh Jesus, you’re a little man aren’t you?

Yes I hold her tightly

Sometimes until dawn

Alone in the quiet

Singing our song

 

It’s a special connection

This bond that we share

But when it’s all over

There’s nothing else there

 

So please don’t count me out over

Something that you don’t understand

‘Cause I might be married to this guitar

But I’m looking for you

 

So don’t tell me it’s over

That we don’t have a chance

Girl we could have something

Something advanced

 

Where you are my woman

And I am your man

And you don’t feel threatened

Because you understand

 

That you can’t just count me out over

Something that you don’t need to change

‘Cause I might be married to this guitar

But I’m looking

I say but I’m looking

I say but I’m looking for you

Looking for you, ooh

One of the mysteries

I admit I’ve never solved

Is when to keep waiting

And when to move on

When I don’t want to seem needy

But I’m tired of being strung along

 

Is it simple and I’ve made it hard?

Is it less and I’ve made it more?

Have my actions betrayed my words?

Have my thoughts and feelings clouded my trust?

I don’t know, ooh

When you’re lonely thinking something’s got to give

And the weight you carry has made it hard to live

When you’re caught in a current that won’t let you go

Tell someone you’re drowning in stress

 

You don’t have to lay inside it like you’ve made it as a bed

There are ways to tame the dragons you have living in your head

Don’t keep waiting for a breakthrough that may never come instead

Set it free

 

When you’ve prayed and cried and plead and tried to wish it all away

But something in the chemicals is keeping you this way

When the mountain’s too big for your kernel of faith

Say it loud, you need help to find your peace

 

You don’t have to lay inside it like you’ve made it as a bed

There are ways to tame the dragons you have living in your head

Don’t keep waiting for a breakthrough that may never come instead

Set it free

 

When anxiety’s been lingering too long

And it’s time depression sang a different song

 

They say “God will never give you anymore than you can bear”

But your hands were never promised they would be the only pair

There are seven billion people who have burdens they need shared

Set it free

Talk to me