[Verse 1] I used to think the heart was just a thing that learned to bruise, A stubborn little instrument that played until it broke. I made a kind of shelter out of everything I’d lose, And learned to call the loneliness a language that I spoke. Then you arrived like daylight through a house condemned to fall, Not trying to rebuild it, just refusing to be gone. I never knew that love could make a man feel quite so small, Or teach him there’s a difference between thriving and holding on. [Pre-Chorus 1] There’s a violence in the tenderness of having something stay, When you’ve spent your whole existence learning how to walk away. Now I measure out forever in the moments we’re allowed, And find the things I couldn’t say are somehow coming out. [Chorus] I spent half my life mistaking being needed for being known, Built a kingdom out of leaving, called the emptiness my home. Then you loved me past the places I had learned to disappear, Till the silence I’d mistaken for my peace began to sound like fear. Now the thought of growing old is not a sentence I endure, It’s a thousand little endings that I want to live with yours. If there’s mercy in this universe, let time be kind to me, I’ve only just discovered there’s a life I want to keep. [Verse 2] There’s a boy beneath the bravado who still flinches at the light, Who learned to make a virtue out of never needing much. He kept his little tragedies folded neatly out of sight, And grew into a man who couldn’t recognize a gentle touch. You never tried to find him like a wound you had to mend, Never made his broken history a debt that love could pay. You simply made a place where he could put his weapons down, And taught him that a man could be both vulnerable and brave. [Pre-Chorus 2] There’s a grief in being witnessed when you’ve spent your life unseen, When someone finds the tenderness beneath the man you’ve been. There’s a child beneath the courage who still trembles when he’s afraid, And you love him just as fiercely as the man he’s grown to be today. [Chorus] I spent half my life mistaking being needed for being known, Built a kingdom out of leaving, called the emptiness my home. Then you loved me past the places I had learned to disappear, Till the silence I’d mistaken for my peace began to sound like fear. Now the thought of growing old is not a sentence I endure, It’s a thousand little endings that I want to live with yours. If there’s mercy in this universe, let time be kind to me, I’ve only just discovered there’s a life I want to keep. [Bridge] I cannot promise you a lifetime, only everything I have, Every morning that I’m given, every road that leads me back. There are parts of me still aching from the years I couldn’t mend, But I’ve stopped believing healing means I’ll never hurt again. I used to think that bravery meant never being afraid, Now I know it’s letting someone see the places where you ache. If the years should leave us weathered, if the light begins to fade, Let me still be yours completely, both vulnerable and brave. [Final Chorus] I spent half my life mistaking being needed for being known, Built a kingdom out of leaving, called the emptiness my home. Then you loved me past the places I had learned to disappear, Till the silence I’d mistaken for my peace began to sound like fear. Now the thought of growing old is not a sentence I endure, It’s a thousand little endings that I want to live with yours. If there’s mercy in this universe, let time be kind to me, I’ve only just discovered there’s a life I want to keep.
