Natalie Merchant
Giving Up Everything
[Verse 1]
Giving up everything
My hungry ghost of hopefulness

Giving up everything
Not haunted by wanting this

[Verse 2]
Giving up everything
The fortune I was saving

Giving up everything
I mercy-killed my craving

[Verse 3]
Giving up everything
I’ve opened up my eyes for this

Giving up everything
See the whole magnificent emptiness

Gave what I want for how it is
For the stone inside and the bitterness
For the sweetness at the core of it

[Instrumental]
[Verse 4]
Giving up everything
The master plan, the scheming

Giving up everything
My cursed search for meaning

Giving up everything
The compass and the map I was reading
The hinterlands I’m leaving
I’m finally leaving behind

[Verse 5]
Giving up everything
The big to-do, the hullabaloo
The tug-of-war for some twisted truth
For the everlasting ache of it
No longer slave, not chained to it
No gate, no guard, no keeper
No guru, master, teacher

[Verse 6]
See the slow-receding faces
Dissolve to black, no traces

[Outro]