Dear Friend,

You had been with me for as long as I can remember.

My first memory of you, my first lesson, and a day that I now, more than ever, want to revisit.

I use to be terrified of animals, but you assured me that if I have love in my heart, no matter what, there is nothing I can’t do.

So, I went up to his dog and timidly held my hand out, it licked my hand and a smile from ear to ear fell upon my face. I finally knew what a dog was truly like.

You used to greet people with a smile.

You used to hug them when they were sad.

You used to put a hand on their shoulder and tell them everything would be okay.

I look back now at how much love you had for everything,

I look back at your kindness,

I look back, and somehow I feel,

Peaceful.

Anxiety flooded my senses when I received a phone call at 4:21 A.M. from your mother.

Dishevelled, it took her a good five minutes before the phrase, “Logan, he’s gone…” is muttered through the phone.

Tears welled up in my eyes and began to roll down my cheek as I dropped the phone. All I can remember is a salty taste seeping onto my tongue, my face blank and pale as I felt an empty void opening that was never going to be filled again.

I hid in the shadows of my covers avoiding the world, terrified because now I am faced with a reality that one day I can wake up and someone can just be gone.

Your smile,

Your kindness,

Your passion,

Your everything,

Your love.

All of it lost because of a man that had too much hate in his heart to see how beautiful life can be and is now completely blind to what he did.

You have been shot to death by the intrepid insatisfaction of love that was too afraid to be who it was and in turn turned into external hatred to those around him.

What do I do?

What do I say?

What is there to say?

Thoughts racing back and forth with a plethora of questions and inadequate answers few and far between. But in the very midst of my confusion I realize…

Love.

Love is the answer. Unconditional, unchanging, never ending love for everything and everyone.

This is it, the light at the end of a dark, bloody tunnel.

Thank you.

Thank you for sparking embers in the heart of a young child that will build into a flame that is determined to burn brightly and warm the hearts of those around him.

Thank you for teaching me lessons upon lessons.

Thank you for everything.

Thank you for showing me what true love is.

Funny how the greatest lesson you taught me was one in which you weren’t here to teach.

Love,