[Verse 1]
There's a stillness on the surface, like a lake before the rain,
And a world beneath the water where you carry quiet pain,
You've learned to hold your feelings like a tide behind a wall,
But the depth of what you carry is the greatest gift of all,
You see what others miss, you feel what others overlook,
Every room you walk into, you've already read the book,
They see the steady presence, they don't see the undertow,
All those currents running ancient in the places none can go

[PreChorus]
And you've wondered if the weight you hold is more than you should bear,
But the heaviness you carry is the proof that you were there

[Chorus]
Michael, you were written by the tide and by the stone,
By the fire in the feeling and the marrow of the bone,
You are steady and you're searching, you are tender and you're true,
There is no one on this earth who was made quite like you,
Michael, let the river carry what you no longer need,
You have always been enough, you were enough to lead

[Verse 2]
You love like something ancient, like a lantern in the cold,
You give before you're asked to, you give more than you are told,
You'll weigh a thousand angles just to get the balance right,
That need for fairness in you is a compass in the night,
You've walked through transformation like a winter into spring,
You've sat inside the darkness and come back with everything,
And sometimes you've forgotten that the fire that forged you here
Was making you more luminous, was burning you more clear

[PreChorus]
And you've wondered if the walls you built were worth what they have cost,
But every stone was just a shelter for the things you couldn't lose

[Chorus]
Michael, you were written by the tide and by the stone,
By the fire in the feeling and the marrow of the bone,
You are steady and you're searching, you are tender and you're true,
There is no one on this earth who was made quite like you,
Michael, let the river carry what you no longer need,
You have always been enough, you were enough to lead

[Verse 3]
There's a part of you that questions every step before it's made,
A mind that turns the lantern on wherever things seem frayed,
That careful, watchful brilliance is the compass that you own,
It's never been a burden, it's the finest seed you've sown,
You came here for connection, for the roots beneath the home,
For the meaning in the everyday, the sacred in the known,
The world is shaped by people who can feel this hard and deep,
Who guard the ones they love like something holy in their sleep

[PreChorus]
And you've wondered if you've given more than you'll ever receive,
But the love you've poured like rainfall is still growing what you need

[Chorus]
Michael, you were written by the tide and by the stone,
By the fire in the feeling and the marrow of the bone,
You are steady and you're searching, you are tender and you're true,
There is no one on this earth who was made quite like you,
Michael, let the river carry what you no longer need,
You have always been enough, you were enough to lead

[Bridge]
You don't have to prove the ocean to the ones who've seen you drown,
You don't have to hold the whole sky up to keep from letting down,
The cosmos wrote you carefully with ink that will not fade,
Every scar became a compass, every storm became a trade,
Rest now in the knowing that you're held by something wide,
Something older than the questions that you carry deep inside

[Outro]
So let the evening find you, let the stillness call you home,
You were never as alone as you believed when you were alone,
You are rooted, you are reaching, you are ancient, you are new,
Michael, all along the way, the map was always you