A family displaced by a wildfire waits forty miles from home, not knowing if there's still a home standing. Neale and Matt wrote this after the town of Ft. McMurray, Alberta burned on May 3, 2016. Over 2400 homes were lost that day. By the time fire was contained on July 5, over 1.5 million acres had burned. An interview Neale heard on NPR was the spark of this song.

Lyrics

Our lives lay piled up by the door
Newsman says it’s jumped the line
Some knocks you’re never ready for
The sheriff says it’s time
Nine hellish weeks, these winds have howled
Still no rain in sight
Now the devil’s reached the edge of town
It’s leave or die tonight
It’s either leave or die tonight
They put us up in a parish house
‘Bout forty miles away
I haven’t been to church in years
But tonight I think I’ll pray
The kids are crying, they’re so scared
No one’s getting any rest
The home we left could still be there
Or maybe ours is next
Are we cursed or are we blessed
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
Still we build our dreams
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
Now I know what that means
My grandpa built that house himself
I’ve lived there all my life
Struggled since the factory closed
But we’ve been getting by
I don’t think that we could build again
The bank owns it anyway
The land, the house, the flames and God
Is it luck or is it fate
And all we do is wait
Three days later, returning home
The rumors rise like smoke
Folks say there may be nothing left
But others cling to hope
As I drive these forty miles
My wife and kids have slept
And watching drops of rain fall down
I know that we are blessed
I know that we are blessed
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
Still we build our dreams
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
Now I know what that means
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
What will be will be
Still we build our dreams