Story: When Someone Looks Kindly
Verse 1
I’ve got a way of missing mornings
Even when the light is good
A way of turning living moments
Into things I think I should
I circle what I really want
Then call it space, call it thought
But underneath the clever names
There’s just a heart that still gets caught
Pre-Chorus
Wanting to be welcomed
Wanting to be known
And building little exits
Before I’m fully shown
Chorus
I stand just outside the room
Where kindness has begun
Wanting to be chosen
But afraid of being the one
Who lets it in, who lets it stay
Who doesn’t turn and run
I stand just outside the room
And say I’m fine when I’m undone
Verse 2
I learned to move with my own shadow
Critic close behind my eyes
He says he keeps me sharp and moving
But he mostly just divides
The one who aches to be accepted
From the one who slams the gate
The one who reaches for affection
And the one who calls it late
Pre-Chorus
So when somebody sees me
And doesn’t turn away
I feel the whole house tremble
Like it might not need to stay the same
Chorus
I stand just outside the room
Where kindness has begun
Wanting to be chosen
But afraid of being the one
Who lets it in, who lets it stay
Who doesn’t turn and run
I stand just outside the room
And say I’m fine when I’m undone
Bridge
Maybe being present
Isn’t calm or clean
Maybe it means staying
Where the tender things have been
Maybe all this leaving
Has just been fear in good disguise
And maybe love feels dangerous
Before it feels like light
Final Chorus
I stood just outside the room
For such a long, long time
With all my careful distances
And all my practiced lines
But now and then the door stays open
And I don’t leave at once
I let a little warmth come in
And feel how strange it is to trust
Outro
So if you see me hesitate
Don’t think I do not care
It’s just that being held in kindness
Feels like more than I can bear
And still I keep on coming near
Though awkward, late, and bruised
Because something in me knows at last
What it was made to move toward
