[Verse 1] Calgary morning, July in the air Two giant flapjacks landed on my plate Syrup on the sausages, cousins everywhere For a little while I knew how to play But most days I was the quiet one Give an adult half a word, then disappear Other kids might laugh, so I learned not to answer I learned pretty young to live inside my fear My brothers had their music Their rooms I couldn't enter I waited till nobody knew Just to stand where they had been Jon built a house from Lego Like the picture on the box I built mine right beside it And something in me dropped Mine looked like a child's His looked like a man And somewhere without saying it I learned who I thought I am [Pre-Chorus] Not good enough Not one of them Not somebody worth seeing yet So I started building ladders Trying to climb my way to love Not knowing what I wanted Wasn't waiting up above [Chorus] I spent my life asking Do you see me? Do I matter? Am I enough? Till I found what I was looking for Was never theirs to give me I was loved before the proving I belonged before the climb Now when my mind draws borders And puts one above another I try to stop And look again There— There's your brother [Verse 2] I learned another language For measuring a man Missions, baptisms, leadership A ring upon your hand Be the husband, be the father Bring the money, hold the line Maybe if I do it all correctly Someone finally says I'm fine But the calling never came At least not the one I thought I needed Then the marriage broke apart And every scoreboard started bleeding If goodness was success And I had failed at being good Who was I when all the things That made me worthy disappeared? [Pre-Chorus] Then somebody wrote of shame Like she'd been reading through my chest And another taught me breathing Without needing to be fixed So I sat there with the noise Let every frightened thought come in Like an old friend at the doorway: Stay as long as you need [Chorus] I spent my life asking Do you see me? Do I matter? Am I enough? Till I found what I was looking for Was never theirs to give me I was loved before the proving I belonged before the climb Now when my mind draws borders And puts one above another I try to stop And look again There— There's your brother [Verse 3] I couldn't start with loving me So I started with my girls I held them in my breathing And love filled up my world Warmth ran down into my feet It was thick enough to taste And then I turned that same love inward For the first time toward my face I love you You belong here You are enough just as you are The Light will show itself in time Keep walking where you are Then came the clerk behind the counter Someone ordinary, I suppose Till I wondered who had raised him Who he loved and who loved him Maybe children wait at home Maybe somebody knows his laugh Maybe every person I've called "stranger" Has a whole world at their back [Bridge] And even the man I called my rival Had a story of his own Children he was trying to love And wounds I'd never known The anger loosened in my hands The distance started getting smaller I didn't have to become like him To recognize my brother And still my mind keeps judging I won't pretend it doesn't Too big, too strange, too high, too low Important, worthless, us and them So this is now my practice: Catch the thought before it hardens Don't punish the mind that learned it Just gently correct the record That's not a label walking past me That's a heartbeat That's a story That's somebody who wants belonging That's somebody who matters [Final Chorus] I spent my life asking Will somebody please see me? And now I know the answer Has been breathing here with me You are loved before the proving You belong before the climb And the human being beside you Is no less beloved than I So if tomorrow you catch yourself Measuring one against another Don't hate yourself Just look again See the face Forget the ladder Leave the pedestal Leave the pit There's a life you haven't heard yet There's a Light you might have missed There— There's your brother [Outro] I am not collecting stories Because I've figured people out I'm collecting them because I'm one of them Still learning how to look Still learning how to love And every stranger that I meet Might teach me who we are So look again There's your brother
