[Verse 1 ] For a while, we counted what remained, Named every absence, measured every change. We learned the shape of living after, Slowly stopped expecting The world to end again. Then someone planted gardens Where the wounded earth lay bare. Someone raised a question No necessity had put there. And we had time to answer. We had time enough to care. [Chorus] There is so much time before us, So much we have yet to make. Every answer opens outward, Every certainty can change. We can spend a hundred years On something beautiful and small, Simply because it pleases us That it should exist at all. There is so much time before us. We are becoming more. [Verse 2] Years passed inside an argument. No one thought them lost. We changed our minds, returned, began again, And never counted cost. A spirit offered what an embodied mind Could never quite perceive. An elf replied with something learned From having hands, and breath, and need. We could be vain. We could be vicious. We could argue just to win. Then someone found the missing question, And we all began again. I loved us for that. [Chorus] There is so much time before us, So much we have yet to make. Every answer opens outward, Every certainty can change. We can spend a hundred years On something beautiful and small, Simply because it pleases us That it should exist at all. There is so much time before us. We are becoming more. [Verse 3] We learned to leave a thought unfinished For another mind to find, Built places where a memory Could outlive the one who left it behind. Some works took generations. Some lasted half a day. Some failed so beautifully We kept them anyway. Of course we signed our names to things. Of course we wanted praise. Some learned to make their names grow larger While the work stayed much the same. Elgar'nan collected honors Like the rest of us collected questions. I found the habit tiresome. He found my opinion aggravating. [Chorus] There is so much time before us, So much we have yet to make. Every answer opens outward, Every certainty can change. We can spend a hundred years On something beautiful and small, Simply because it pleases us That it should exist at all. There is so much time before us. We are becoming more. [Instrumental] [Verse 4] I knew the halls by how they sounded When waking minds drew near. Knew when spirits filled the spaces Before their shapes appeared. There were always conversations Already underway, A place within them waiting For whatever I might say. Not every voice was welcomed equally. Not every judgment earned its weight. We carried habits out of wartime Long after they had lost their place. I thought we would outgrow them. We had changed before. [Bridge] We had survived enough To stop making survival sacred. So we made room for joy, For argument, For beauty without purpose, For the pleasure of being wrong And learning from each other. We made mistakes, We hurt one another. We repaired what we could And learned where we could not. We made more than monuments. We made a life. [Final Chorus] There was so much time before us, So much we had yet to make. Every answer opened outward. Every certainty could change. We could spend a hundred years On something beautiful and small, Simply because it pleased us That it should exist at all. There was so much time before us. We were becoming more.
