A thank-you prayer for someone you haven’t thanked in person is a good start. Text them next.

Private gratitude is real, and it is also incomplete, because the person at the center of it has no idea. Being glad about someone changes you. Telling them changes them, and most people are carrying far less evidence that they matter than you would guess. The distance between the two is one message long.

Send it today rather than adding it to a list. Name the specific thing: the lift, the advice, the shift they covered two years ago. Keep it short so you actually press send.