The Long Road Home

We met when we were young,

with more dreams than we could hold,

You had a little one,

and a heart made out of gold.

We made a second,

joined as one, and learned to make ends meet,

Paid our dues and everybody's,

while the world stayed on its feet.

You wore your country's colors,

had a future in your hands,

Till a bad knee and a fool back home changed all our

careful plans. But you gave more than you were given,

never asked for much at all,

And I was too young and blind to see who caught me

when I'd fall.

Then another son came into our world,

you loved him as your own,

Made a family out of broken pieces,

turned a house into a home.

We built ourselves an empire in a town nobody knew,

I thought that I was building it,

but the heart of it was you.

Those nights away grew longer,

and the help grew mighty thin,

Till the walls we built together started crumbling from within.

You were carrying the weight of us while I was chasing something

more, Never saw how tired you'd gotten till you couldn't take no

more.

And the path back to your heart is long,

And I know where I went wrong.

I can't undo the hurt I've caused,

Or give you back the years we've lost.

But if there's a road through all this pain,

I'll walk through sunshine,

snow, and rain. I won't ask you where to start,

I'll just take the path back to your heart.

(path back to your heart)

We headed west where mountains rise and meet the desert sand,

Looking for a better life in a place we didn't understand.

A fresh start looked so pretty when we saw it from afar,

But old troubles came along with us,

packed beside us in the car.

We made some friends,

we lost some too,

and drowned some nights in drink,

And every time you needed me,

I was further than you'd think.

Time kept moving like it always does,

and somewhere on the way,

Two people sleeping side by side grew a thousand miles away.

You made a choice,

you turned around, You'd given everything you had.

And the boy you knew,

that reckless clown,

Finally saw the man he'd been.

With a broken heart and one last chance,

I reached for your hand that day.

Said, "I can't promise you tomorrow,

But I'll do my part today."

And with tears in both our eyes,

We said the hardest kind of goodbye.

Not forever, not a promise,

Just two hearts needing time.

Now our three kids have lives to live,

four grandsons carry on,

Little pieces of the love we made,

long after we are gone.

And every song we've ever shared still plays inside my head,

Like the whispered words of love we spoke and all the things

we never said. Come home or stay,

it ain't my choice,

that truth I understand,

You deserve to find your peace,

even if it's without my hand.

But there's a dream I keep inside,

where somehow we're alright,

And you're laughing in the kitchen on an ordinary night.

And the path back to your heart is long,

But I'm not the man who did you wrong.

Not because I've found some perfect way,

But because I'm choosing better every day.

I can't erase the yesterdays,

Or love the hurt right out of them.

But I can be the man you needed,

Even if you never come again.

(yeah, even if you never come again)

Some songs don't end when the music fades,

They keep on playing through the years.

Some love survives a thousand storms,

Some love survives the tears.

So come home or stay,

my Angelique,

I'll love you just the same.

And if the road leads back to me,

You'll find I've kept the flame.

The path back to your heart is long,

But it's the only road I'd choose.

And if I never reach the end,

I'll still be better

because of you.