Outside Looking In* - Mary Chapin Carpenter

Everywhere I see the signs, pointing one direction

No more twists or crooked turns, leaving room for doubt

Where I used to take the time for quiet and reflection

Now I only hear the noise of what I am without

I see them walking hand in hand, and my eyes just want to linger

On those golden wedding bands, wrapped around their fingers

By the time I turn away, I feel it once again

I’m back in this familiar place, outside looking in

Baby, all the tears between us couldn’t fill the spaces

And all the word we grasped at, they just fell away

I kept waiting on forgiveness to fix the broken places

But nothing even like it ever came my way

And tonight I drove around, and the street came up before me

I took a turn and then I found this old house coming toward me

I heard the sound a heart must make when a memory’s caving in

Oh baby, what a hungry place, outside looking in

It’s the hardest kind of need

That never knows a reason

Are we such a lonely breed

Or just born in a lonely season

Baby, it’s all in the eyes

It’s where the reckoning begins

It’s where we linger like a sigh

It’s where we long to be pulled in

It’s where we learn to say goodbye without saying anything

Standing on the borderline, outside looking in