The Hardest Part of Love

Oh, this son of mine, I love so well and oh, the toll it takes

I would build a bridge of dreams for him and patch it where it breaks

But the one thing he most treasures is to make his own mistakes, oh

He is bound for lands I've traveled, I remember them so clear

I could tell him what to watch for, I could warn him what to fear

I could shout until I'm breathless and he'd still refuse to hear, oh

But you cannot close the acorn once the oak begins to grow

And you cannot close your heart to what it fears and needs to know

That the hardest part of love is the letting go

As a child I found a sparrow that had fallen from its nest

And I nursed it back to health 'til it was stronger than the rest

But when I tried to hold it then, it pecked

And scratched my chest 'til I let it go

And I watched it fly away from me with its bright and selfish song

And a part of me was cursing, I had helped it grow so strong

I had feared it might go hungry and I feared it might go wrong, oh

But you cannot close the acorn once the oak begins to grow

And you cannot close your heart to what it fears and needs to know

That the hardest part of love is the letting go

And it's only in Eden grows a rose without a thorn

And your children start to leave you on the day that they are born

They will leave you there to cheer for them

They will leave you there to mourn, ever so

Like an ark on uncharted seas their lives will be tossed

And the deeper is your love for them, the crueler is the cost

And just when they start to find themselves

Is when you fear they're lost, oh

But you cannot close the acorn once the oak begins to grow

And you cannot close your heart to what it fears and needs to know

That the hardest part of love

And the rarest part of love

And the truest part of love

Is the letting go