Life is

Words and music by CALUM AND RORY MACDONALD
From the RUNRIG album IN SEARCH OF ANGELS (1999)

This is the song that most struck me from the band's In Search of Angels album, at a period when their lead singer of over 20 years, Donnie Munro, had left to pursue other interests. By the time the next album, The Stamping Ground, had been recorded, Bruce Guthro from Cape Breton in Nova Scotia had been recruited, but for most of this album Rory MacDonald handled the vocals. The lyrics to this song are sublime, and show the touch of the metaphysical poet that the MacDonald brothers' writing can sometimes reveal.

Life is hard, somehow
Life is cold, somehow
It can make you, it can break you
In pieces all around

There is no return
Once the seal's undone
Morning dawning with life abounding
But in time we all must fall
And it seems to be this way
Hearts change and brightness fades
And it leaves you facing the days
When your hope is blown apart
Life is hard

I walk you down that road
It's the only road we know
Nights so blinding, the world denying
That love so loved the world
What words to ease the pain
A life to live again
What can lift you up from this place
Where you hold a broken heart
Life is hard