From Where I Came

If you knew what I went through in my formative years

you wouldn’t question my integrity, I’m more than sincere

from where I came: a life riddled with fear

not recognizing my own face when I looked in the mirror

drown my pain with the beer

more than likely drinking the straight liquor

quicker just to make my skin thicker, killing my liver

just so I could be confident enough to deliver

myself unto the world, I was born to be a giver

swimming against the river, so cold I’d start to shiver

shake quiver from withdrawals, I’d fall and try to figure

why some people got the whole pie and I can’t see a sliver

vision skewed, feeling blind

struggling to find, peace of mind

started giving them a piece of my mind

thesis reaching without preaching, teaching, featuring I’m

speaking in the nick of time, amongst the greatest of crimes

is self-repression, here’s the lesson, if you seek you will find

HOOK:

It’s not life if we only exist

what we spend our time resisting is bound to persist

there’s no mystery it’s

what I’ve learned from the strain and the pain

we make our rules or we play somebody else’s game

I’ve given up keeping score because nothing is fair

and despite that I had to find the reasons to care

because selfishness was loneliness that drove me insane

now I can never go back to the place from which I came

My awareness of the world was painful

knowing what I did and not acting was shameful

not being thankful

although I was eating, had shoes on my feet’n

there’s people starving in the streets’n their bellies ain’t full

lacking perspective I was also lacking clarity

focused on my pain, thinking no-one could compare to me

tried to numb it with the herbs and rum

drinking straight Appleton

and smoking blunts that changed the colour of my lungs

standing in front this ladder, staring at the bottom rung

with every step I fell 2 steps back, was feeling dumb

even worse, started thinking that my life wasn’t vital

like a curse, losing hope, started feeling suicidal

crushed by my depression, distrust like and infection

that was spreading through my system

fucked up beyond recognition

I thank God every day that I overcame that position

‘cause death of my old self meant that I gained a mission

HOOK:

It’s not life if we only exist

what we spend our time resisting is bound to persist

there’s no mystery it’s

what I’ve learned from the strain and the pain

we make our rules or we play somebody else’s game

I’ve given up keeping score because nothing is fair

and despite that I had to find the reasons to care

because selfishness was loneliness that drove me insane

now I can never go back to the place from which I came

Regardless of the circumstances we’ve got choices to make

the way I see it, I can choose either to give or to take

in every single situation, I can build and create

or I can destroy and employ mechanics of hate

where I was in my past, I didn't know that it could be

a different way because I just couldn’t see

I didn’t know I could be me

I didn’t know that I could choose to believe

a different life – nowadays I’m a different kind of free

I used to think in black and white, but I know that wasn’t right

because the world lives in shades of gray

that compose our everyday

I heard ‘em say: “perspective ain’t everything,” but it’s close so

we can either grow or decay

you see I had to stop burning all the herb and tobacco

put the plug in the jug so I could break my mental shackles

now I earnestly believe there’s no problem I can’t tackle

there’s no war anymore, because I won the only battle

HOOK:

It’s not life if we only exist

what we spend our time resisting is bound to persist

there’s no mystery it’s

what I’ve learned from the strain and the pain

we make our rules or we play somebody else’s game

I’ve given up keeping score because nothing is fair

and despite that I had to find the reasons to care

because selfishness was loneliness that drove me insane

now I can never go back to the place from which I came