At Day's End - Redemption

In quiet hours, still awake

I listen to each breath you take

And I wonder what you dream about

How far we’ve come, since we were young

Our preconceptions now undone

So I wonder what you dream about

I’m mine, I might be soaring

Pushing things to greater heights

But like Icarus, the flames are real

And dreams turn into nightmares

I know my wings might falter once up in the sky

But I don’t want to fall — I want to fly

I never saw myself as one who went outside the lines

Our life’s momentum takes us, and in an instant it’s behind us

It’s sacrilege to take advantage of the blind

But what about uncertainties that work to cloud our mind?

If our perception causes us to go astray

Who can help us try to find our way?

I never saw myself as one whose life was just a race out of control

But in the mirror I see the lines grow deeper on my face

It’s sacrilege to take advantage of the blind

But what about uncertainties that work to cloud our mind?

If our perception causes us to go astray

Who can help us try to find our way?

When I look back on all that’s happened

When I look back on choices I have made

Should I regret the contours of my path?

The broken cobblestones that I have paved?

We’re only given just so many sunny days

We’re only given so much time to build a life

Our choices all along the way construct a maze

And when our time is up we could be trapped inside

Lost in fantasies and never to return

While we are building, tearing down or making plans

The days are vanishing, the world won’t fail to turn

Choices have consequences, limiting our future

And yet the weight of outcomes cannot be discerned

Make them wisely, child

It’s hard to look around me now at everything I have

And not derive contentment from it all

Dreams made real, and the future unforeseen has played out well

But is contentment the enemy of growth?

Could I have overlooked what might have mattered most?

You must have been something else when you were younger

You must have been something else when you were free

When all that you had was time and the world of choices was yours

And you chose me

We spend half our lives repairing bridges that our selfish actions helped

destroy

But it’s still so hard for us to recognize that a life is such a fragile toy

We spend half our lives making disguises;

we perfect and use them as our tools

Then spend all of our remaining years searching for something we cannot fool

At day’s end we’ll throw out our disguises with nothing to defend

At day’s end we’ll pick up all the pieces and learn to live again

When you look back on all that’s happened, would you do it all again?

That’s the honest measure of our lives

Knowing then what you know now, would you choose me once again?

That’s the question carrying most weight at day’s end

I know my wings have faltered once up in the sky

But even if you’re falling, there’s still time to fly

And looking with dispassion at the choices I have made

I know it’s self-defeating to carry regret onto my grave

I know that there’s a reason why my road returns to you

And why, despite the obstacles we both had to fight through

We both have had our doubts, but I think we know it’s true

That you remain the best of me, and I the best of you

And all our struggles, and every time we’ve cried

They’re rendered meaningless in our embrace

‘Cause we’re still standing, and nothing can prevail

Against a love that’s meant to be

At day’s end we put down our disguises with nothing to defend

At day’s end we pick up all the pieces and learn to love again