Compassion Lyrics

every time i see you; you just have to let me know
how much you used to hate me; how you just can't let things go
you can't forgive your mom for dying and leaving you alone
all you life you've been searching for a family and a home
someone to love, someone that won't go away
well i have seen my share of pain and troubles too my friend

when i was 5 and growing up i put my hand right on the stove
so glowing hot and red it took the skin off to the bone
when i was young i prayed to god to make my torment end
a lonely heart and sticks and stones were all i had for friends
i thought i would never know the bliss of touching souls
i tried to think of what it would be like when i got really old

we lie in our own beds my friend. we build them in a fashion
but mine were built to cultivate awareness and compassion

what bothers me is you forget we come from the same place
we have the same desires despite gender blood or race
what bothers me is we forget till right before they die
to take back all the words we said
to look them straight between the eyes
what bothers me is that we stand here silent back to back
and i am just like you but you refuse to see the facts

we lie in our own beds my friend - we build them in a fashion
but mine were built to cultivate awareness and compassion

love is the only thing that feels good when it burns
it's the breath of our existence
i am serving as i learn
i am taking pieces of me
i am building my reserves
for every time you take a swing
for every time you hit a nerve
cause you know you cannot hurt me
i am walking through your anger
and my spirit will keep walking
cause it knows there is no danger
only what we choose to take on
only what we choose to take in
every hurt that comes your way
is a chance to show compassion

they never teach us in the schools that we are out here on our own
that we are living close together but essentially alone
you can turn love into hate but you can't hate love itself
i don't know who told you love had anything to do with self
i've seen kinder eyes than yours behind the barrel of a gun
so i'll ask you just one question.which of us has really won?

we lie in our own beds my friend - we build them in a fashion
but mine were built to cultivate awareness and compassion