Break The Shell - India.Arie

I met a prophet dark as the night

She could see into my soul

Said she’d been watching and had some advice

She said shadows make you whole

A life without pain is a wolf in sheep’s clothes

Cause if you listen to the lessons that it holds

You’ll find the gold

Child, it’s time to break the shell

Life’s gonna hurt but it’s meant to be felt

You cannot touch the sky from inside yourself

You cannot fly, until you break the shell

I can remember when I was a child

How the grown folks seemed so crazy

Why are they so angry?

Why are they so loud?

And when I grow up that’s never, ever gonna be me

That was the moment that I decide

That I would build a wall just shy of 6 feet tall

Too strong to fall

Child, it’s time to break the shell

Life’s gonna hurt but it’s meant to be felt

You cannot touch the sky from inside yourself

You cannot fly, until you break the shell

Courage is not being hard

It’s time to peel back all of the layers

You put between who you’re meant to be

And who you are

And go be who you are

So much disappointment to finally understand

That there is no such thing as perfect

We’re all simply doing the best that we can

And we have a choice to live or truly be alive

This is your life

Child it’s time to break the shell

Life’s gonna hurt but it’s meant to be felt

You cannot touch the sky from inside yourself

You cannot fly until You break the shell

Child it’s time to break the shell

Life’s gonna hurt but it’s meant to be felt

You cannot touch the sky from inside yourself

A bird cannot fly until it breaks the shell

Do with these words what you will

It’s time for us to be for real

You’ll be stuck on the ground until

You finally break the shell