I’m not a good gift giver. I show up to parties without a bottle of wine. I send my kids to birthdays with no bag of trinkets. I rarely remember my friends with a card or a gift certificate to their favorite book store. I’m probably snickered about behind my back. Eye rolls likely ensue when my kids show up empty handed and the other mothers probably say, ‘Don’t invite the Riley kids…they just come for the free cake…”
I know this about myself and yet at almost forty years old, I’ve done nothing about it so far. And let’s face it…I probably never will.
A while back I had a call from a friend who was standing on the side of the road. She said she’d stopped to help someone who’d lost their transmission…while hauling a trailer…and could we bring our great big truck to the rescue.
So since my husband was standing around drinking coffee and being totally useless to me, I sent him on the mission. To save a damsel in distress, he said? No problem! And he eagerly went out the door.
Turns out the broken down truck was hauling cows…and the man is afraid of cows…like a little girl. But he gallantly hooked up the trailer and hauled the woman and her child…as well as her cows…to her house about thirty miles away. She thanked him profusely, he shrugged his manly shoulders and tipped his hat with a “no problem ma’am” and went on his way. Well, maybe it didn’t happen exactly like this but you get the picture.
Last week that same sweet woman brought a gift of thanks she’d put together. It’s been months…and it was long forgotten by the rest of us. But she hadn’t forgotten. And her husband, who had been out of town at the time…had also not forgotten. She showed up with pretty basket in hand, full of bows and ribbons and cute little sayings.
And that evening, when the man texted from his night shift 800 miles away, feeling a bit cranky…I took a photo of the basket and sent it to him. In return, I got a smiley face…which in text world means I made him happy.
And so I guess in the end, it all comes around. For some people it’s in a helping hand on the side of the road. For others it’s a well-timed basket of goodies months later. Sometimes we affect people in ways that we have no idea. Sometimes…when we least expect it…others will affect us.
And it always comes full circle.
