Hardest Part of Love

[JAPETH]
Oh, Father, please don't make me choose
Either way it's more than I can bear to lose

[NOAH]
Oh, this son of mine I love so well
And ah, the toll it takes
I'd give to him a garden
And keep it clear of snakes
But the one thing he most treasures
Is to make his own mistakes, oh-h-h...

He goes charging up the cliffs of life
A reckless mountaineer
I could help him not to stumble
I could warn him what to fear
I could shout until I'm breathless
And he'd still refuse to hear, oh-h-h...

But you cannot close the acorn
Once the oak begins to grow
And you cannot close your heart
To what it fears and needs to know:
That the hardest part of love
Is the letting go

As a child I found a sparrow
Who had fallen from its nest
And I nursed it back to health
Till it was stronger than the rest
But when I tried to hold it
It would peck and scratch my chest
Till I let it go

And I watched it fly away from me
With it's bright and selfish song
And part of me was cursing
I had helped it grow so strong
And I feared it might go hungry
And I feared it might go wrong, oh-h-h...

But I could not close the acorn
Once the oak began to grow
And I cannot close my heart
To what it fears and needs to know
That the hardest part of love

[FATHER]
Is the letting go

[NOAH]
Is the letting go

[FATHER]
And it's only in Eden
Grows a rose without a thorn
And your children start to leave you
On the day that they are born
They will leave you there to cheer for them
They will leave you there to mourn, ever so

Like an ark on uncharted seas
Their lives will be tossed
And the deeper is your love for them
The crueler is the cost
And just when they start to find themselves
Is when you fear they're lost, oh-h-h...

[NOAH, FATHER]
But you cannot close the acorn
Once the oak begins to grow
And you cannot close your heart
To what it fears and needs to know

[NOAH]
That the hardest part of love

[FATHER]
And the rarest part of love

[NOAH and FATHER]
And the truest is part of love
Is the letting go