Mary Chapin Carpenter is my all-time favorite singer—-I own at least five of her albums. If her albums were paths thorough the woods, they would be well-worn and smooth from all the hours that I’ve listened to them. Her lyrics speak to me of shared experiences and secret longings, with humor and grace.
Last week when I heard that she had a new album, Something Tamed and Something Wild, I bought it immediately. You can listen to the song and read the lyrics. Enjoy this amazing music!
Something Tamed and Something Wild
Here’s a shoebox full of letters bound up neatly with some twine
Each one was like a diamond, now the jewel is lost to time
My reward is in the knowing that I held it in my hands for a little while
What else are there but the treasures in your heart? Something tamed, something wild?
For every time that I’ve been foolish when I’d wished that I’d been wise The power of regret still gets me right between the eyes
And sometimes I want to weep with nothing but the tears of a little child
What else are there but the lessons in your heart? Something tamed, something wild?
Here’s a map I’ve memorized of every where I’ve ever been
And the faces of everyone I’ve loved and left to try again
I couldn’t make out what they were saying, so instead I listened hard to what’s inside
What else is there but the voice inside your heart? Something tamed, something wild?
Some nights I’m woken up by something stirring in my chest
It’s a feeling I’ve no name for, it’s hard to catch my breath
I’m staring down the great big lonesome as I’m listening for the dwindling of time
What else are there but the echoes in your heart? Something tamed, something wild?
So the things that matter to me now are different from the past
I care less about arriving than just being in the path
of some light carved out of nothing, the way it feels when the universe has smiled
What else is there but the beating of your heart? Something tamed, something wild?
Here’s the shoebox full of letters, here’s the map I won’t forget
The voices and the lessons and the signals that connect us
Manifested to the spirit, way deep down where it goes unseen by the eye
What else is there but the love inside your heart? To a life like a firework’s to a spark
Over and above you in it’s arc
Something tamed, something wild?