Shadows

When the sky stays quiet, you take what light you can get. This one’s about reaching for something you can’t see and settling for the shadow it casts — kneeling for water in a dry creek bed, building a temple out of salt and stone just to feel a little less alone.

Lyrics

I’ve been tracing the maps in the palm of my hand
Trying to find where the spirit might land
The creek bed is dry, just a hollowed-out vein
And I’m kneeling for water instead of the rain
The timber is heavy, the cedar is sweet
I’m pressing my forehead to the dust at my feet
Hoping the soil holds a secret or two
About how to get closer to something like You

And I’m leaning my weight on the fence and the pine
Trying to bridge where the stars meet the line
If You won’t step down to this valley of gray
I’ll settle for shadows to show me the way
I’m building a temple of salt and of stone
Just to feel like I’m never quite standing alone

The wind has a whistle that sounds like a plea
But it doesn’t have answers for a sinner like me
So I watch how the sunlight burns gold on the grain
Finding a grace in the harvest and pain
I looked for a sign in a burning white light
But I found it in embers that glow through the night
If the heavens are silent and the curtains are drawn
I’ll look for Your face in the cold of the dawn

I’m tired of reaching for hands I can’t feel
So I’m grasping at everything jagged and real
The bite of the winter, the pull of the tide
Is it enough just to have them beside?

And I’m leaning my weight on the fence and the pine
Trying to bridge where the stars meet the line
If You won’t step down to this valley of gray
I’ll settle for shadows to show me the way
I’m building a temple of salt and of stone
Just to feel like I’m never quite standing alone

Just the grit in the wind
Just the shift in the bone
I’m making a home out of all that I’ve known
Stay here
Just stay here

Hear it, and own the record, on Bandcamp.