LOVE IS NOT OWNERSHIP

[Intro] (Faint room tone, old wood creak, distant thunder) (Soft upright piano) (Solo resonator guitar enters) [Verse 1] You stood there in the hallway light Hands trembling inside your coat Like somebody holding two worlds And afraid of dropping both You said your mother calls you From somewhere beyond the blue And every prayer you whisper now Still carries pieces of you I saw the fear behind your eyes Not fear of me alone But fear that love could close the gate To the only home you've known [Pre-Chorus] So I laid my heart down gently Like a photograph in rain Some things are meant for holding Some are meant for letting change [Chorus] Love is not ownership Love is not a chain It is not a locked door promise Or a frightened person's claim Love is not possession Not a cage wrapped up in trust Sometimes love means stepping back Before it turns to dust And if your heaven waits for you Beyond my outstretched hands Then I will love you wide enough To let you leave me standing [Verse 2] I had forty years beside her A fire named Pam and grace And no one walks in afterward And simply takes that place I told you from the first slow dance The truest thing I knew That love does not erase the dead To make more room for new Still you kissed me like a sunrise Through the blinds of borrowed days Two lonely souls in borrowed time Trying not to break [Pre-Chorus] But eternity stood between us Like a river cold and deep And I could not ask you to drown For a love we could not keep [Chorus] Love is not ownership Love is not a chain It is not the hand that holds too hard Till mercy feels like pain Love is not possession Not a victory to win Sometimes love means opening the door Instead of locking it again And if your mother waits for you Somewhere past the stars I will not become the shadow Between your heart and hers [Bridge] (Soft strings swell) I hope the life that finds you Is gentle when it lands I hope the fear releases Like water from your hands And if there's truly gardens Beyond this broken shore May you walk them unafraid And need grieving no more [Final Chorus] Love is not ownership Love is not control It is seeing someone's frightened soul And not demanding toll Love is not forever Just because we ache Sometimes love is blessing someone Even as they break So go where your spirit calls you Go where you must go And I'll remain a quiet light In the window's amber glow [Outro] (Piano and distant pedal steel) Love is not ownership... It is love enough... To let go...