A cold wind against my shoulder woke me up in the middle of the night

An Autumn leaf was scraping against my window

like it was trying hard to get inside

and then a ghost that I had met before kept me up 'til dawn

and everything I thought was right was suddenly all wrong

He said, "Your score is looking pretty bad"

and then he asked me what it was that I had to show



So I went running down a list of things

some were real, but on some of them I lied

'cause I felt I had to justify each breath that I'd been breathing in this life

Then I realized I was playing into someone else's rules,

trying to keep my score up in a game I did not choose

Then I looked that ghost straight in the eye

and said "You'd better not be coming back by again"



And it's true that I don't work near as hard

as you tell me that I'm supposed to

I don't run as fast as I could

but I live just the way I want to

and that's the way I should



October's leaves were dancing 'round

like angels dressed in robes of Red and Gold

but November's come and gone now

and they're lying in the gutter out along the road

They're gonna make their way out to the ditch or someday to the sea,

they'll get to where they're going without the help of you or me

and if each life is just a grain of sand

I'm telling you man, this grain of sand is mine



And it's true that I don't work near as hard

as you tell me that I'm supposed to

I don't run as fast as I could

but I live just the way I want to

and that's the way I should

but I live just the way I want to

and that's the way I should