It's a gift to me, this waking in the hour before the sunrise
It's a gift to me, the light that gilds the waves across the bay
It's a gift to me, the silence of this old house in the morning.
I watch the sky and weather, and begin another day.
It's a gift to me, these raucous gulls that wheel outside my window
I watch the sun climb higher and set to fire the morning dew.
Small boats outside my window reflect their colours to the water
Like gaudy gypsy caravans, bright yellow, red and blue.
There's a young boy tossing pebbles in a tide pool in the Channel
There's an old dog on an errand on his way towards the town
I hear the voices of my neighbours. I see a sail out past the island.
Sunlight through the gulls' bright wings, slowly circling down.
As a boy I walked these broken roads from sunrise until evening.
I knew each stone and tree that final mile up to the hill
Starlight through the clouds, dark trees on the horizon.
The smell of rain and wood smoke…I remember, oh so well.
Now I walk out past the iron bridge that reaches to the island
Past brightly painted houses scattered down along the shore
I build my fire, I boil my tea, I stare out at the water
Once again I am that little kid I was long years before.
There's a heron in the shadows staring at his own reflection
There's a brown trout in the shallows in the lake behind the hill
He waits, wide-eyed and silent, in the cold and tea-brown water.
He's like my heart before I knew you love, cold and dark and still
It's a gift to me, the sunset burning down the far horizon
To the East the fat moon rises past the steeple on the hill
And this day that I've been given, to walk and watch and wonder.
Night falls upon the little town. The stars are bright and chill.
Its a gift to me, the stars that circle slowly 'round the roof tops
I turn my face to skyward to breathe in their ancient light
My long years hover 'round me as I stand there in the darkness
The night wind rises up, stirs the gra** and whispers past me in the night.
It's a gift to me, the sun and stone and sky and wind and water.
This harbour town that opens to a sea of endless blue.
And as the sky grows bright above me, my cup is running over.
And everything I have before me love, I'd give it all to you.