Family Tree

***I’ve spent most of the day editing photos for a beautiful wedding I shot a few weeks ago and as I’ve been listening to music while I edit, I can’t but help think about my own wedding and family. So much. So very much has happened since that hot August day in 2008. And the last couple days have been emotional for me, for all of us really. We’re a steady, strong group, but surely tangled. So when Jewel’s Family Tree came on, it seemed fitting for everything that’s been going on. It’s really a gorgeous song. Worth a google and a minute to listen to.
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Family Tree
by Jewel

Mama, I see your face now in the mirror
It’s getting clearer
Daddy, all those things I said I wouldn’t do
I’ve been drawn to ’cause I looked up to you
And I’ve loved you through this tangled legacy
Tracing the twisted roots of our family tree

I stayed strong like you did
I moved on like you did
And I wound up tough as stone like you did
If I don’t learn to bend I know I’m going to break
Like you did

Lover, I must forgive you
I confused you with what I couldn’t see inside of me
Dark things pulling, not evolving
It made a puppet out of me
And you came with your own history
Both caught in the branches of our family tree

I stayed strong like you did
I moved on like you did
And I wound up all alone like you did
If I don’t learn to bend, I know I’m gonna break just like you did

I love you but I need to look at who we’ve been
Take the fruit but choose the seeds I scatter in the wind
That’s the job of the kid: to do better than our parents did

So I’ll stay strong like you did
And I’ll move on like you did
But I won’t hide from the truth like you did
I’m learning to bend so I won’t break
And you can bet I’ll teach my child that love will always find a way just like you did

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