Love is on the inside - 1A

Verse 1

Leonard Cohen on a Sunday morning
Oyster shooters and a Bloody in her hand
Sunlight dancing through a window in Chicago
Soulful songs and dreams she couldn’t understand

Back then she measured love in careful questions
Can you hear the things I never say aloud?
If I give enough, will you finally see me?
Will you find me standing somewhere in the crowd?

Pre-Chorus

But time has a way of breaking old illusions
And teaching what survives when they fall apart

Chorus

Love is on the inside
Not waiting to be found
Not hiding in a prince upon a white horse
Not buried underground

It’s a tail that starts wagging
A garden after rain
The jasmine on the evening wind
A heart that healed its pain

Love is on the inside
A quiet, steady light
And when you learn to carry it
The whole world shines at night

⸻

Verse 2

She built herself a little sanctuary
Not just walls and windows, fields and trees
But a place where fear could finally surrender
And a weary soul could breathe

Dogs are sleeping, cats are purring softly
Moonlight settling gently on the floor
Nothing missing, nothing left to chase now
Just gratitude and something more

Pre-Chorus

Because peace is not a gift that someone gives you
It’s a garden that you grow with your own hands

Chorus

Love is on the inside
Not waiting to be found
Not hiding in a prince upon a white horse
Not buried underground

It’s a horse that softly nickers
A child who wears your smile
A friend who shows up when the storm comes
And stays a little while

Love is on the inside
A quiet, steady light
And when you learn to carry it
The whole world shines at night

⸻

Bridge

She walked through fire carrying self-doubt
Years of being told she wasn’t enough
Crazy, broken, difficult, impossible
Till she discovered none of that was love

Therapy, tears and long-forgotten courage
Putting down the anger she had known
And standing in a room she once feared entering
Finally feeling safe inside her own soul

⸻

Final Chorus

Love is on the inside
The lesson all along
The frequency beneath the noise
The meaning in the song

It’s integrity and kindness
It’s trust that doesn’t bend
It’s sharing what you’ve grown with those you cherish
Again and again

Love is on the inside
The place where all roads start
And every beautiful thing she ever searched for
Was growing in her heart

⸻

Outro (spoken/sung like Leonard Cohen)

Make a kid smile.
Feed the dog an egg.
Watch the moon rise.
Listen to the cat purr.

Most things we worry about never happen anyway.

Love isn’t someone coming to save you.

Love is the way you live.