Salt Water Cure

This track comes from the Lowcountry marshes where Aaron found wisdom knee-deep in pluff mud. It tackles The healing power of salt water - how the ocean has been therapy for a veteran dealing with the weight of service. The lyrics get specific — "Talk therapy on Tuesdays with a room full of others" — because personal tracks on Majik's are personal for real, not performatively. The island pop production matches the energy of the confession. It hits healing and warm, in that order. Every personal track in the catalogue comes from a real moment, a real feeling, a real person. This one is no exception.

[verse 1] They prescribed me pills in three different colors Talk therapy on Tuesdays with a room full of others Who knew the weight but not the water Nobody mentioned the ocean as an over-the-counter Remedy for the thing that follows you home From the places you've been, from the steel and chrome Of a warship, but the first time I waded in Off Folly Beach with the salt up to my chin I felt something dissolve that the doctors couldn't reach Turns out the best therapist was always the beach [chorus] Salt water cure, that's what I call it Wade in broken, walk out and stall it The darkness, the weight, the midnight replay Salt water cure at the break of day The ocean doesn't judge, doesn't diagnose Just holds you up and the healing flows Salt water cure, better than anything A pharmacy could bring [verse 2] Every morning at six I'm knee-deep in the Atlantic Before the tourists wake up, before the world gets frantic Just me and the pelicans and the rising sun And the salt that pulls the poison out, every single one Of the memories that sit too heavy on my chest The ocean takes them out like the tide and leaves the rest A cleaner version of the man I'm trying to be Salt water therapy, completely free No copay, no waiting room, no forms to fill Just walk into the water and be still [chorus] Salt water cure, that's what I call it Wade in broken, walk out and stall it The darkness, the weight, the midnight replay Salt water cure at the break of day The ocean doesn't judge, doesn't diagnose Just holds you up and the healing flows Salt water cure, better than anything A pharmacy could bring [bridge] Isak Dinesen said the cure for anything is salt water Sweat, tears, or the sea, in that order Well I've done all three, sometimes all at once Standing in the surf at sunrise like a dunce Crying and sweating and swimming through the grief And every single time I found relief In the salt that's been healing since the world was new The oldest medicine, and it's always true [verse 3] I tell every veteran who'll listen, try the water Before you try the bottle, before the pain gets hotter Drive to the nearest coast and walk in slow Let the waves do the work, let the current flow Around the things you're carrying that nobody sees The salt water knows, the salt water frees What's been locked up tight since the day you came home I'm living proof, standing in the foam Of Folly Beach, a Navy vet made new By the oldest cure the planet ever knew Salt water, sunrise, sand between the toes The prescription that the ocean freely chose To give to anyone who needs to heal Salt water cure, the most important thing I feel [chorus] Salt water cure, that's what I call it Wade in broken, walk out and stall it The darkness, the weight, the midnight replay Salt water cure at the break of day The ocean doesn't judge, doesn't diagnose Just holds you up and the healing flows Salt water cure, better than anything This world could bring [outro] Wade in Let it hold you The ocean's been waiting Salt water cure