Breaking Through

I know it ain't easy

I guess it is hard

Staying on with me

The way things are

Even if I could lie

You know what's true

I still want her

But you're breaking through

I swore that I

Would be different this time

So, not one little lie

Even to ease your mind

But if she came around

I wouldn't answer the call

But I ain't up yet

So I'm not free to fall

I can't ask you to stay

Though I want you to

I'm not over her

But babe, you're breaking through

It's happening sure

But it's happening slow

Maybe someday soon

I can let yesterday go

As for right now

That's all I can promise to you

I'm not ready yet

Baby, you're breaking through

The Memory I Choose

God knows I think about you 

now and then

I can see you laughing 

in the wind

Sometimes I remember 

how I loved you

Sometimes I can't believe 

I ever did

But weren't we laughing

Like two kids

That's the memory 

I will always choose

and I hope that's the thing 

you will never lose

We never really had a chance

I guess we never will again

But I ain't sad as I used to be

And I ain't as sad as I could've been

Because I got to hold you 

For a little while 

I got to take you places 

And make you smile

That's the memory 

I will always choose

And I hope that's the thing 

You will never lose

We saw willie Nelson 

And we saw George jones

We traveled this country

Like the Rolling Stones 

We made love

On the Hank Williams trail

I still ain't forgot 

How you got me in and out of jail

I saw you laughing

In the Georgia pines

And that's your home 

In my mind

That's the memory 

I will always choose 

I hope that's something 

You will never lose

I spent a while

Figuring out where to go

Until I found myself

Down near the Alamo 

I took the long way to Texas

But I'll be alright

I hope you've found love

I hope you hold on tight

I guess I owe you a debt

And some gratitude 

For the hard way you taught me

How to sing the blues

I hope someday

You'll look back in time

And see a softer picture 

In your mind

And remember how

You loved me for a little while

How I moved the earth

Just to make you smile

But yours is your 

Own vision of time

I can't change yours

I can just keep mine

That's the memory 

I will always choose

And I hope that's a thing

You don't ever lose

Curses and Blessings

I've heard I'm hard to hold
But easy to love, maybe easier to hate
Never going nowhere, always headed somewhere
One foot across the line of tempted fate

I guess I was born
To travel alone
To live out the stories
And tell them in a song

Sometimes I thank god
With the same breath I curse
For making me a rounder
For better or worse

Sometimes a soul too deep
Will mix his curse with his blessing
Maybe life ain't nothing
But one gorgeous long lesson

I guess there ain't something
Exactly as it seems
Through the heartbreaks and laughter
The break-ups and ever after
I'm still here chasing my dreams

Just like the ladies
Who have all wondered why
I hang on too tightly
Or fall down to fly

I can't say
Because I don't know
I'm just a highway
A lonely stretch of somewhere to go

I know most men grow up
Get a good job and settle down
Hell, don't you know I tried it
But the same god that made you, made me what I am

Sometimes a soul too deep
Will mix his curse with his blessing
Maybe life ain't nothing
But one gorgeous long lesson

I guess there ain't something
Exactly as it seems
Through the heartbreaks and laughter
The break-ups and ever after
I'm still here chasing my dreams

Sometimes I get lazy
Pursuing whiskey and sins of the flesh
And sometimes i'm as lonesome
as an infant by the gates of the creche

I have seen a star so pretty
As this living, we call it art,
And I have held the passion of the beast
Staring at the fallen idols he tore apart

But from this day to the next one
I'll only do the very best that I can
To paint with the colors of a newborn
And write the words of a hard living, hillbilly man

Sometimes a soul too deep
Will mix his curse with his blessing
Maybe life ain't nothing
But one gorgeous long lesson

I guess there ain't something
Exactly as it seems
Through the heartbreaks and laughter
The break-ups and ever after
I'm still here chasing my dreams