It’s never too late.

Last year at the beginning of November Mike and I decided that we were done traveling the country living out of my car. We were in Arizona and needed to get two cars, his and mine, across the country. Instead of driving in a caravan and missing out on hours of quality time together singing along with the radio and having philosophical conversations, we wanted my car to end up on the east coast some other way. I researched car shipment companies but then had an idea to just put it on Facebook and see what happened. I simply wrote that I needed my car driven from Phoenix to the Hamptons or Portland, ME sometime in November.

Believer it or not, several people responded. I was actually quite shocked by the number of people who were up for taking a spontaneous road trip around Thanksgiving. One response struck me the most. Here’s what it said:

I just ‘liked’ you on facebook and saw that you’re looking for someone to get your car from Phoenix to Long Island. Did you find someone yet? I live in Maine and have been thinking of some kind of get away for the end of November. I may be up for it if the need is still there….

I know you can appreciate synchronicity so I wanted to share this with you. I’m writing a book about a year in my life when I traveled cross country. I’ve been slowly retracing my journey and this drive would give me the opportunity to re-drive a portion of that (I went from CA to NH), which I’ve been hoping to do within the next year.

I got full body chills reading Alissa Pashko’s email. I knew she was my girl. We had a brief phone chat to make sure neither of us was crazy and to iron out details. She booked a one-way ticket to Phoenix for Thanksgiving day, picked Zoe up from my aunt and uncles house, and went on her way.

Alissa didn’t ask me for money and she didn’t know me from Adam. She trusted me. And I trusted her to arrive back in Portland, ME a few days after Thanksgiving with her and the car in one piece. And she did. Her generosity and the generosity of the universe for connecting the two of us at the perfect moment still floors me now, a year later.

I shot an episode of Glimpse TV with Alissa, intending to share the magic of our paths crossing. I wanted to post it as a way of thanking her and also as a reminder to us all that the world is full of inherently good people. I also wanted to share the miracle of asking for someone to drive my car across the country for me and finding someone who was looking for exactly that sort of opportunity.

Sadly, when I went to edit our episode today I found that the file was lost. So instead, I’m posting Alissa and my story here today. I’m saying thank you to her a year after her generous deed.

May this post be a reminder to all of us:

It’s never too late to say thank you. (Click to tweet.)

The other day I sent over twenty thank you notes for gifts I’d received in June. Would it have been better etiquette to send them right away? You bet your bippy. But I didn’t. So, instead, I sent them this week, six months later.

Would it have been ideal to post my Glimpse TV episode with Alissa last November when the file was in tact? Probably. But instead I’m telling the story today. And I guarantee that at least one person reading this needed to hear the story today, not last year.

You can spend your time beating yourself up for not sending that wedding gift, for not writing that note, for not bringing a present to your hostess, or for not emailing your heartfelt appreciation in a timely manner.

Or you can spend your time saying thank you. There’s no such thing as a thank you coming too late. To the degree that all time is happening right now, (which I believe on some level it is) this moment is the perfect time to say thank you.

In honor of Thanksgiving in the US this week (even if you don’t live here) say thank you to someone. Do it on pretty stationary, do it in an email, do it via your blog, or do it silently to yourself. Do it even if it’s long overdue. You never know, your timing might end up being perfect for the recipient of your thank you. Tell me who you’re going to thank and how in the comments below.

And please know that I’m thankful to each and every one of you. Some of you I know, some I don’t, but I appreciate you all nonetheless. You bring a lot of goodness to my life whether you know it or not. Thank you.

2 comments

  • Wow! This story shows faith, trust and a little pixie dust! :) You two are little angels. And this is in fact a tale of synchronocity at its finest! Thank you for sharing this delightful story. Happy Thanskgiving!

  • Kate

    You’ve just given me permission to stop killing myself for having missed to send a thank you, and have enlightened me that a belated thank you can still satisfy your intention and also have a meaningful or joyful impact. So thank you for this insight.
    K
    And where did you learn to write? You do it really well, I feel like you take me on an enchanted journey through whatever it I you’re writing about :)

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