The Lake Still Knows Me

I've changed more than I ever planned

Lines in my face ring on my hand

Kids running where I used to race

Time moving at a different pace

The dock's been fixed a time or two

Boards replaced but holding true

I stand here older than I was

But I'm still because

This shoreline never asks

Who I failed to be

It just lays the morning down

And lets me see

The lake still knows me

Through every scar and memory

Through the nights that broke me

And the weight I couldn't stand

It doesn't need explanations

Or who I used to be

I show up as I am

And the lake still knows me

I've buried things I can't explain

Watched love endure and watched it strain

Held my mother's fading mind

Felt my father slip through time

Lost friends I never thought

Would leave this side of shore

Some nights the quiet feels too loud

Like I can't take much more

But the water doesn't ripple

When I fall apart

It just keeps reflecting back

My steady heart

The lake still knows me

Through the doubt and disbelief

Through the anger and the grieving

Through the questions I can't speak

It doesn't turn its back on me

When I don't understand

I stand here in the dark

And the lake still knows me

Just staying when the storm rolls in

And holding on

The same wind that filled our sails

Still moves across my skin

And somewhere in that steady blue

I find myself again

The lake still knows me

Not the boy not just the man

But every version in between

And all that's in my hands

Through fifty years and more

Through everything that's been

I come back to this water

And it lets me in

The lake still knows me

And I still know where I stand

Morning comes

Mist lifts slow

Same shoreline

Same glow

I've changed more than I ever planned

Lines in my face ring on my hand

Kids running where I used to race

Time moving at a different pace

And it lets me see