Standard (EADGBE)

I remember growing up loved like it was only yesterday

Mum and daddy tried their best to guide me on my way

 But the hard times and the liqour drove easy love away

 And the only love I knew about was hard love

 It was hard love every hour of the day

 When Christmas to my birthday was a million years away

 And the fear that came between them drove the tears into my play

 There was love in daddy's house but it was hard love

 I recall the gentle courtesy you showed me as I tried

 To dissemble in politeness all the love I felt inside

 But for every song of laughter there was another song that cried

 This ain't no easy weekend this is hard love

 It was hard love every step of the way

 It was hard to be so close to you and hard to turn away

 But when all the stars in the sentimental songs dissolve away

 There'll be nothing left to sing about but hard love

 So I'll love you for your courage and your gentle sense of shame

 And I'll love you for your laughter and your language and your name

 And I knew it was impossible but I loved you just the same

 Though the only love I gave to you was hard love

 It was hard love it was so hard on you I know

 When the only love I gave to you was love I couldn't show

 You forgave the heart that loved you as your lover turned to go

 Leaving nothing but the memory of hard love

 So I'm standing in this phone booth with a dollar and a dime

 And I'm wondering what to say to you to ease your troubled mind

 For the Lord's cross might redeem us but our own just waste our time

 But to tell the two apart there's always hard love

 So I'll tell you that I love you even though you're far away

 And I'll tell you how you changed me as I lived from day to day

 And how you helped me to accept myself and I won't forget to say

 That love is never wasted even when it's hard love

 Oh it's hard love but it's love all the same

 It's not the stuff of fantasy much more than just a game

 And it's the only kind of miracle that is worthy of the name

 For the love that heals our lives is mostly hard love