For the first time in this blog, I gave something away that was expensive. I paid for the gas of the person driving the car behind me at the gas station. 

Many years ago, my family and I had gone out for breakfast at a local restaurant. I remember that I was just coming off a long illness and was still feeling pretty lousy. The breakfast was ordinary with lots of food and talking and playing games with the kids.

At the end of the meal, I handed the waitress my credit card. She looked at me and smiled.

“It’s taken care of.” she said with a smile. I did a double-take and looked at her.

“It was paid for already.” she said again.

“Who paid for it?” I asked. She just smiled again.

Needless to say, my wife and I were stunned. We looked around the restaurant, speculating who it might have been. We talked about it all the way home. And to this day, I still think about it. I felt lucky.

Today, I did the only expensive thing so far in my year long challenge. I paid for the gas of the person behind me at the gas pump. I handed the attendant the card, told her what I wanted to do, and she took the card and swiped it.* When she came back to the car, she had a big smile.

I said, “It’s Friday the 13th.”, took the card and drove away.

I won’t ever know exactly how the man in the car behind me felt. But if he felt like I did that morning long ago at breakfast, he felt lucky.

So what can you do today? Can you make someone else feel lucky?

Let’s turn Friday the 13th upside down!

* In Oregon, state law requires an attendant pump the gas.