From the recording Birds Of Relocation (2012)
I began seeing a counselor in 2010 after a particularly brutal summer. In talking with him, he noticed I not only listened to the legion of "butcher voices" -- the awful things I tend to believe about myself -- but that, in doing so, I was choosing to love them. We choose to love the things that hate us most. He gave me an assignment to write a song about those voices. Like a beaming kindergartner holding up his work, here is my homework.
Lyrics
Voices, when I listen to the voices
Every shroud of anger is sorrow in disguise
The voices, when I believe the voices
That convince me I am worthless, bent on my demise
Hear, oh hear the saints’ and angels’ voices
Everything about my weakness that is strong
Everything about the heart that could go wrong
Every hope that ever lived there but has since flown
I’m finding again, finding again
In the garden, when we lived inside the garden
Creatures bright and shining, we were, dust brought to life
In the silence, when we lean into the silence
We choose the things that hate us most, and rest upon the lies
Everything about my weakness that is strong
Everything about the heart that could go wrong
Every hope that ever lived there but has since flown
I’m finding again, finding again
We choose to love the things that hate us most
Everything about our weakness that is strong
Everything about our heart that has gone wrong
Every light that ever shone in darkened halls
Is shining again, I’m finding again
Oh, the voices
When I listen to the voices
I listen to the voices
Of the saints and angels