You showed me something years ago, Just something new you'd learned, A tool you thought might help my work, Another place to turn. We laughed and talked and tried it out, No reason then to see That simple gift you handed me Would someday carry me. You couldn't know the road ahead, And neither could I then. You couldn't know how much would change, Or where our story' would end. You couldn't know there'd come a day I'd struggle with goodbye— Or that the thing you showed me once Would help me process the 'why'. You couldn't have known What that little gift would do, How something given long ago Would help me make it through. When I couldn't understand the loss, Or find where I belonged, The gift you gave before goodbye Helped me find my song. You couldn't have known. And neither could I. Sometimes gifts reveal themselves Only farther down the line. I poured the questions into words, The memories, hurt and love, I searched my heart, I searched the past, And kept reaching up above. And slowly all that talking Became more than getting through— I started finding pieces Of the me I always knew. Then words became a melody, And memories became songs, The good stayed good, the love stayed real, Even when things went wrong. And somewhere in the singing I found more than what was gone— I found a lifetime waiting For a voice to carry on. Maybe that's the strangest grace— The good doesn't disappear. Something given out of kindness Can keep giving year by year. Whatever happened afterward Can't change what once was true: When I needed help to find myself, Part of that help came from you. You couldn't have known What that little gift would do, How something given long ago Would help me make it through. It held my questions, held my tears, Then helped me find my song— And opened up a lifetime I had carried all along. You couldn't have known. Neither could I. But I'll always know one gift you gave Kept giving down the line. Sometimes I wonder if that was The last gift I'll receive from you. I pray it isn't; hope still leaves A door that love might wander through. But if this season lasts awhile, There's something I will always know— The gift you gave me years ago Kept giving when you chose to go. Of all the things I lost that year, This truth somehow remains: Long before I needed it, You put a tool into my hands. And Aaron, you couldn't have known— But I'm grateful just the same.
