The Woman Who Stays

Lyrics

**[Verse 1]** I've been the girl who held on tightly To a dream she couldn't see Believed that if she loved enough Then love would guarantee A forever and a future All the things we'd hoped to find I was ready for your last name And to build a life with mine But somewhere in the hurting I forgot the simple truth I can love somebody deeply And still need more than love can do **[Pre-Chorus]** I can pray for your healing Without forgetting mine I can wish you every good thing And still draw a certain line **[Chorus]** I'm the woman who stays When the world falls apart The one who has to live here With the pieces of her heart I am more than what you chose More than who you couldn't be I can love you for a lifetime Without losing all of me I'm the woman who stays Not waiting at your door I'm staying for the life I still have so much living for **[Verse 2]** Dominic deserves the truth About what it means to stand To be gentle with the people Who have trusted in your hands Amelia deserves to see A love that doesn't disappear And a woman who can keep her heart Without surrendering to fear I want to show them something Even if I'm learning too That the strongest kind of loving Doesn't mean accepting what wounds you And I know you have your sorrows I know you carry pain I never wanted to condemn you For the storms inside your brain But I cannot be responsible For every choice you make And I can't keep breaking promises To myself for someone else's sake **[Chorus]** I'm the woman who stays When the world falls apart The one who has to live here With the pieces of her heart I am more than what you chose More than who you couldn't be I can love you for a lifetime Without losing all of me **[Bridge — Building to Full Power]** And Jed, if there's a tomorrow That has both of us inside It has to start with honesty With nothing left to hide Not another pretty promise Not a reason or excuse But the kind of love that protects us Even when it's hard to choose I don't need to know the ending I don't need to force the page I can leave a little room for hope Without living in a cage **[Final Chorus — Full Band]** I'm the woman who stays The woman who survives The mother and the dreamer Who's still building her own life I'm the woman who loved you Through the sunshine and the rain The woman who once pictured Herself as Nicole Kean And maybe you'll remember What we were and what we gave But I am not a memory And I'm not a life to waste **[Outro — Piano Only]** Twenty years of knowing you Six and a half of holding on I don't know what we're becoming Or which way this story goes But if everything should change again There's one thing I finally know I don't have to stop loving you To start choosing me.