It was just starting to drizzle as I walked out the door But I've delivered papers in the rain like that before Three thirty in the morning, I was happy as a lark As I grabbed my bike and rode into the dark I pedaled through the neighborhood, the weather on my mind The wind was picking up and howling louder all the time The sky churned like a cauldron and the distant thunder roared And I knew that I was in for quite a storm A little rain never hurt no one so I kept pressing on And I tried to tell myself, it's always darkest before the dawn Lightning struck an oak tree as I leapt off my bike The sirens started wailing but there was no good place to hide I knew without a doubt, there was a twister touching down So I crawled into a culvert to wait it out The little bit of courage I had left was almost gone But I tried to tell myself, it's always darkest before the dawn And then the nightmare started, it got deafeningly loud Everything fiber in me screamed out but I couldn't make a sound The whirling of a vortex, a violent carousel It sounded like a freight train was dragging me to hell And this was my prayer, "Save me from this terrible nightmare" That was when I saw my family with my eyes shut real tight Would they know how much I loved them if this was how I died? No, I vowed I'd not be murdered by a monster in the sky that night But if I went home to heaven, at least that's where I'd belong Yeah I tried to tell myself, it's always darkest before the dawn So I kept hanging on I kept hanging on The shadows slowly melted as I was hunkered down Till at last the worst was over, the storm was dying out I crept out of that culvert and I went weak in the knees Cuz what I saw was a somber sight to see There was nothing but destruction and wreckage in that town Cars were upside down and houses leveled to the ground A twisted trampoline was hanging from the power lines I blinked a tear back cuz I felt lucky to be alive And that was how I learned to live when you can run but you can't hide How to feel trapped in a tunnel but come out the other side Cuz with all the stormy weather in the world, you learn to take Life one storm at a time, you don't have to be afraid And now when there's bad weather on the way, I stay calm And I keep hanging on because it's always darkest before the dawn And I keep hanging on I keep hanging on