SHONE A SMILE at a girl crossing the street
Hold her gaze wonderin’ is she smiling back at me?
Over ear headphones and hair cut short
Sweet smile so real that’s her heart looking back at me
Does her smile hide her struggles
Or had she overcome today
And like me just felt like smiling there was nothing we could say
But if we had shared a word I figure it would be
Life is beautiful — we’ve come a long way haven’t we

In her look mellow eyes only love that I felt
Inner light cause the ice in my coffee cup to melt
That smile made my morning but soon I looked away
What did she see? A foreigner
Lakers shirt plastic bag of groceries
Damn that felt good what the hell did we just share
Looked both ways and crossed the street
Why’s this moment feel so rare
Was it meant to be more or was a smile enough
Life is beautiful, I mean it, and I’m sharing this because
Instead of beating myself up
Crossed the street and said nothing
I felt proud of myself — that smile told me something
I’m done with that shit, being my own enemy
Today’s a new day
And I choose to love me

When I stepped into my room I
Put the groceries down and danced
To the song still in my ears, I let go
Surrendered, looked in the mirror dancing like a fool smiling
Dropped the weight
Tears welling in my eyes
Acceptance, understanding, self-love;
You are love
That’s what she saw
Something you can’t see in yourself
In that smile, she saw me
Done not feeling good enough
It’ll happen in life but
You’re love no matter what you do
No matter who you are
Been the message all along but we had to come this far
Things are changing
Everything
I’m ready, man
Ready to be here as me

Planes overhead Tokyo
Shrine glowing in the evening
Steely clouds dragonflies while
Lying in the tall grass; it feels good to lie down in the grass
Life goes on summer heat
Kids running getting older
Feels like I’m getting older
Growing up as I lay here in the
Summer of my life
It’s all so beautiful coursing through me — life
I’ve had to fall low to feel this high on nothing but life itself
And for that I say thank you, pain
You’ve given me everything

Since I was young you were there
Yet I couldn’t understand
What I felt I’d lock the door
Tears runnin’ down my face
Runnin’ from the world twenty, fifteen,
Ten years later run as far as I could go
There’s nowhere left to turn, my back’s against the wall
Been running from myself
Thank you, pain, it’s time to be easy on myself
Thank you, pain I mean it sincerely
If not for you it’s true I’d never see my life clearly

Thought you were a monster dragging with me through life
And I guess I was dragging you along, but you’re not a monster
You’ve cried when I’ve cried; you’re not a monster
You just wanna see me understand there’s no moving forward
Without letting love in
You’ve told me all along been fighting every step
Thought that made me strong
And damn I’ve learned so much
Thought there was something wrong with me
Do we all feel this way
Gotta learn to love ourselves
Love the broken and beautiful and flawed creatures that we are?
Can we love our regrets
Or realize that we are love
Love is flawed and broken and put back together
Love is what we couldn’t see but we were doing our best
Thought I had to fix you
All I can say is thank you
Thank you, pain
But it’s time to say goodbye

I’ve felt guilt. Shame. Anger. Sadness.
I thought it was the chronic pain
But the pain was just a mask
I felt unworthy of certain things
But these feelings don’t help us —
We all feel them
We’re human
It’s not always as easy as just saying, love yourself
We gotta look at our lives and ask, why do I feel this way?
Is it serving me to wake up and criticize myself every day?
Is this pain physical or is the emotional negativity
I’m harnessing in my heart and soul
Causing my physical body to rot?

Everything is changing
It’s time to let go of all that shit
Let it go, you are made for more
The energy of my being is shifting;
The way I see the world, my past, and myself;
What I feel I can achieve, and what I expect from the future
What I believe I’m worth
I can’t move on until I fully embrace this stage of my life
I can’t move on until I truly understand, thank you, pain
Thank you for all that you have given me
I’m done fighting
I embrace what we’ve been through with the entirety of my being

It’s never been about escaping what I couldn’t see
To heal is to step from this cage
And breathe as me
Time to reestablish harmony and trust
In my body heart and soul
Felt guilty
Feeling judged when nobody’s judging me but me
I’m just tired
Surrender and trust the love in your heart
The love that you are it takes strength
And courage and consciousness to
Be easy on yourself dancing your my room
I forgive myself and those I think have hurt me
We’re human
Free
This journey — this indescribable, challenging, beautiful fucking journey
Every day we take steps and this is the biggest step of all
Love and accept you exactly as you are
Gotta love this life and all its challenges
That’s what makes this journey count
Saturday morning sun shining
Dancing in my room alone; smiling to that girl
You’re alive
You’re you! Be you; love you; you got you
You’re love

Headed to the summer festival
Thunder in the distance
Things are gonna be okay
Standing on the train tracks
Don’t need to know exactly how
But I got my why —
Why am I alive
Days and nights like this
Summer festival in Tokyo
Don’t need to know why but I’m here —
Rain fallin’ thunder in the distance
That’s destiny callin’ saying stand up
Be you if the lightning and the rain
Scratch the fireworks tonight
Still gonna see my friends
Everything’s gonna be alright