Ali Handal: Music & Video

• MP3 short clip, hi-fi play (broadband)
• MP3 short clip, lo-fi play (modem)

This meaning of this song to me personally has changed over the two years since I wrote it.

What started out as a sad song about love lost is now a triumphant ballad about how beautiful and healing it can be to accept reality, even when it doesn't look the way you want it to at the moment. It's about staying true to what you really want for yourself, and not settling for anything less.

After all, "You get what you settle for."

(As stated so eloquently by Susan Sarandon as Louise in Thelma & Louise!)

I found you on your island warm and dry
you never waded in over waist high
but my home is far from shore and the current runs strong
and I cannot stay in shallow water for long

I’m breathing underwater
I’m not fighting for air
I may drown in the deep
but I don’t care

cuz I love you and you love me
but I cannot make you swim with me

My skin is glistening listening to you lie
beside me on terra firma explaining why
For a few precious moments I felt alive
and I don’t know how but I know I’ll survive

I’m breathing underwater
I’m not fighting for air
I may drown in the deep
but I don’t care

cuz I love you and you love me
but I cannot make you swim with me
swimming in the deep

I know it’s safer in the water you tread
but I’d rather dive in over my head