After All Chords by Dar Williams

[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Go ahead, push your luck, find out how much [F] love the world can hold
_ Once upon a time [Dm] I had control, [F] and reined my [G] soul in [C] tight
_ [G] _ _ _ [C] Well the whole truth is like the story of a wave [F] unfurled
But I [Am] held the [Dm] evil of the world, [F] so I stopped the tide
[G] Froze it up from inside, and [C] it felt like
A winter machine that you go through and then
You catch your breath and [Dm] winter starts again
[Am] And everyone [G] else [C] is spring [G] bound
_ And [C] when I chose to live, there was no joy, it's [F] just a line I crossed
I wasn't worth [Dm] the pain my death would cost, so [F] I was [G] not lost [C] or found
[G] _ _ And [C] if I was to sleep, I knew my family had [F] more truth to tell
So I [Am] traveled down [Dm] a whispering well to [F] know [G] myself through [C] them
[G] _ _ _ [C] Growing up, my mom had a room full of books and hid [F] away in [C] there
[F] _
My [C] father raging [Dm] down a spiral stair
Till [F] he found someone, [G] most days his son
And [C] sometimes I think my father too was [F] a refugee
I know they tried to keep [Dm] their pain from me
They [F] could not [G] see what it [C] was [G] for
_ But now [C] I'm sleeping fine, sometimes the truth is [F] like a second chance
I am the daughter [C] of [Dm] a great romance
[F] And they are [G] the children of [C] the war _
[G] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
Well _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ [Dm] _ [Gm] _ _ [Am] _
[F] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ the sun rose, with so many colors it nearly [F] broke my heart
_ It worked me over [Am] like [Dm] a work of art
[F] And I was [G] part of [C] all that
[G] _ _ So go [C] ahead, push your luck, _ say what it is you gotta [F] say to me
We will push on into [Dm] that mystery
And it'll [F] push right back, and there are [G] worse things than that
Cause [C] for every price, _ and every penance that [F] I could think of _
It's better [C] to have fallen [Dm] in love, than never to have [G] fallen [C] at all
_ [G] _ _
Cause when [C] you live in a world, life gets into who you [F] thought you would be
And now I laugh at [Am] how the [Dm] world changed me
I [F] think life [G] chose me, after [C] all _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ [G] _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _