Samuel Lockridge Ash In the Dirt lyrics

I look in the mirror, but for the life of me,
can't remember what I look like once I leave.
But I recall a photograph of me
laughing on a greybeard's sturdy knee.
He said, “there's no stream flowing to the sea
that doesn't need the help of every cloud and leaf.”

Awake! Awake! Shake yourself from the dust!
Arise! Arise! With fire in your eyes!
We were feeding on each other like snakes
eating ourselves alive.
No wonder we were starving,
reaping only what we'd sown.
Teach us to work with our own tender hands.
We water and we plant
but only You can make things grow.

But sometimes my hands remember her hair
and I can't help but smile.
And sometimes my bones remember her laugh
and I can't help but listen.

Its true, I've been babied my whole life.
No right of passage in an age as fast as light.

But when I rise above these city lights,
I'll be a living man for the very first time.
And the dew clinging to my fingertips
will magnify the life in everything I touch.

Alive! Alive! O, child of the wild!
O, Mother Hen! Gather Your children!
My brittle mind was wearing so thin,
though sharpened like a spear.
But the woods are all ablaze,
how can I not sing in praise?
Sing out at dawn and at eventide,
“soften me like clay, unrelenting as the grave!”

She's more than just auburn and dreamy gold eyes,
she is You in disguise.
I'm more than my jealousy, pain, or my pride,
I've been given new life
by the One who said gently, like ash in the dirt,
“tell Me where it hurts.”