To Rise You Gotta Fall

I been sittin’ on the porch this morning
Just strumming and smoking green
Thinking about the highs and lows
Between now and when I was 18
When you walk into the garden gate
You’re bound to get bit by a snake
Guess you don’t know love without a little heartache

How can you know good until you know better?
If you’re looking for love get ready to get hurt
You can’t win ‘em all and to rise you gotta fall

So I went down to Salinas
To find work and to clear my head
Got a job as a hired hand
When the harvest time came near

But the dirt went dust and the crops dried out
If you don’t get to market there’s no payout
Guess you don’t praise the rain
Until you’ve had a drought

How can you know good until you know better?
You’re gonna find pain on your way to pleasure
But it’s the bumpy roads
That lead you where you need to go
And bring you home

Went looking for some perspective
So I knocked on my mama’s door
My heart was filled with sorrow
And I collapsed right there on her floor
She said, “Girl you best not cry any longer
Life is cruel and it just gets harder
But what doesn’t kill you makes your story longer”

She said, “How can you know good
Until you know better?
If you’re looking for love get ready to get hurt
Life’s a hurricane but the magic’s what remains
Ain’t no rainbow without a little rain”

Oh how can you know good until you know better?
If I knew what I know now I’d write me a letter
Saying you can’t win ‘em all
But to rise you gotta fall, to rise you gotta fall