Only A Dream

I have been on both ends of taking leave.

The one who leaves...and the one who is left behind.

Even if you want to go and know it's for the best, it can be hard to leave.

As hard as it is to leave, it hurts more to be left behind.

* * * * * * * * * *
The song in my head this week is by Mary Chapin Carpenter. Years ago Ken heard one of her songs on the radio and thought I would enjoy her music. We bought her current CD at the time and have been fans ever since. Eighteen years later this haunting song still touches my heart.

Only A Dream
by Mary Chapin Carpenter, from the album Come On Come On, 1992

I can recall the sound of the wind,
as it blew through the trees
and the trees would bend
And I can recall the smell of the rain
on a hot summer night coming through the screen.
I'd crawl in your bed when the lightning flashed
and I'd still be there when the storm had passed
Dead to the world till the morning cast
its light all around your room.

We lived on a street where the tall elm shade
was as green as the grass and as cool as a blade
That you held in your teeth as we lay on our backs
staring up at the blue,
and the blue stared back.
I used to believe we were just like those trees,
we'd grow just as tall and as proud as we pleased
With our feet on the ground and our arms in the breeze
under a sheltering sky.

Twirl me about and twirl me around
Let me grow dizzy and fall to the ground
And when I look up at you looking down
Say it was only a dream.

A big truck was parked in the drive one day,
They wrapped us in paper and moved us away.
Your room was no longer next door to mine,
This kid sister thing was old by that time.
But oh how our dreams went bump in the night
and the voices downstairs getting into a fight
and the next day a silence you could cut with a knife
and feel like a blade at your throat.

Twirl me about and twirl me around
Let me grow dizzy and fall to the ground
And when I look up at you looking down
Say it was only a dream.

The day you left home you got an early start,
I watched your car back out in the dark.
I opened the door to your room down the hall,
I turned on the light and all that I saw
Was a bed and a desk and couple of tacks
No sign of someone who expects to be back.
It must've been one hell of a suitcase you packed.

Twirl me about and twirl me around
Let me grow dizzy and fall to the ground
And when I look up at you looking down
Say it was only a dream.