When you stood there, in the shadow of my mountains,
in all likelihood at the very point that is my centerpoint
did you know I was meant to be there by the lake on that very day?

Did you hear the mighty roar of my Anabaptist ancestors
splashing in the water just beneath the bridge you crossed
or did you get disoriented in the place where I once got lost?

And did you know where God led me to on this the day of your beginning,
the longest day I used to hate because I would fall apart and turn
myself inside out just to try to figure out why you cut me out

And off from everything, banished me and then my little boy, too.
"For no reason at all," he used to repeat endlessly in the years
I had no words or food to feed him and my mind had gone

Somewhere lost in time. But I am found and grateful now
to have been ressucitated, risen from the icy waters
to face the astonishing truth of how long I have loved you.

I have faced it and faced it and I will face it again I am sure.
Face down in my pillow, there are no tears, only a half-smile
that for at least a little while you have been happy again.

I am grateful for all that has been and for the castle on the hill.
I can hear Ed Sheeran singing the song. There you are on the boat.
And again in the restaurant---did you go there again this time?

It's real, you know. I know you will know what you know in time
even if I've given up on time and set my life on fire
or retreated once more into silence. Still, I will love you.

I will speak truth. And I will believe, because once upon a time
you made me believe when you said I had a future and, despite
your precise provision of every evidence to the contrary,

This much I know is true . And so all is well. Love is patient,
love is kind. Love withstands all wrongs. I will lay down my head
to rest now, this candle burning in my heart as I sing a lullaby,

Beatles style, of course... and dream of my dream come true ,
served up by the maker of the stars in every detail save one
and I will fall to sleep tonight and wonder who will meet me

By the sea, on the mountain, in the valley where we fell down
like little children, laughing, and then fell asleep together
after I sang you a birthday song long ago...

So long.