Learning How to Navigate

Intro
(Instrumental: Warm pedal steel swell meets a gentle acoustic guitar strumming pattern and a soft fiddle lead)
​[Verse 1]
The cedar fence is leaning where the north wind takes its toll
I’m measuring the timber by the rings inside the pole
Your coffee cup is sitting on the sill above the sink
Still holding onto warmth I didn't stop to think
Would fade before the morning sun could clear the canyon ridge
Or leave a quiet distance like a washout at the bridge
​[Chorus]
And I’m learning how to navigate the silence in the hall
Where the calendar from autumn is still hanging on the wall
It ain't a sudden thunderclap that changes how we stand
It’s just the slow erosion of the water on the land
Yeah, the hardest kind of leaving doesn't make a single sound
It just settles like the evening fog across the open ground
​[Verse 2]
I greased the tractor axles and I stacked the winter wood
Keeping busy with the ordinary things I understood
A man can fix a broken latch or mend a rusted wire
And tend the steady embers of a dying cedar fire
But you can't brace a doorway against a shifting breeze
When two hearts start to winter like the sycamore trees
​[Chorus]
And I’m learning how to navigate the silence in the hall
Where the calendar from autumn is still hanging on the wall
It ain't a sudden thunderclap that changes how we stand
It’s just the slow erosion of the water on the land
Yeah, the hardest kind of leaving doesn't make a single sound
It just settles like the evening fog across the open ground
​[Instrumental Solo]
(Fiddle solo trading melodic phrases with a classic weeping pedal steel guitar over a steady, walking bassline)
​[Bridge]
Maybe time is just a surveyor staking out the line
Between the life we pictured and the one we left behind
I won't curse the changing weather or the turning of the year
I'll just keep the porch light burning though there's no one drawing near
​[Chorus]
Still learning how to navigate the silence in the hall
Where the calendar from autumn is still hanging on the wall
It ain't a sudden thunderclap that changes how we stand
It’s just the slow erosion of the water on the land
Yeah, the hardest kind of leaving doesn't make a single sound
It just settles like the evening fog across the open ground
​[Outro]
(Instrumental slows slightly)
Just settles like the evening fog... across the open ground.
(Fiddle and pedal steel resolve on a warm, lingering major chord)
End