Someone Will Notice,<\/a>\u201d if you want to know the painfully honest answer to that question.<\/p>\nGranted, part of me wanted to shrug off my daughter\u2019s new phrase by thinking, \u201cWhat a new cute saying!\u201d or \u201cWhat a funny little girl I have!\u201d<\/p>\n
But my Hands Free Inner voice (the one that doesn\u2019t take any BS) said this, \u201cListen up, Rachel. You have just been given a gift. Don\u2019t waste it.\u201d<\/p>\n
I immediately started doing something I hadn\u2019t done since my children were babies.<\/p>\n
When my daughter said, \u201cWatch me,\u201d I stopped what I was doing and sat down. I gave her my full attention to watch the complete action she wanted me to see in its entirety.<\/p>\n
The first few times I did this she seemed surprised. She peered into my face as if to see what was going on. It appeared as if she thought I was sick and needed to take a seat and catch my breath.<\/p>\n
But once I smiled and said, \u201cO.K! I am ready,\u201d she looked excited. In fact, she looked more than happy; she looked overjoyed.<\/p>\n
I remember the time she showed me how she could run half way across the kitchen floor in her pajamas with attached \u201cfeet,\u201d fall to her knees and slide the rest of the way across.<\/p>\n
Seeing her slide across the kitchen floor may not be on my \u201cTop 10 things I want to see in my lifetime,\u201d but it was important to her, and I knew she wanted me to see the whole ENTIRE thing.<\/p>\n
In my front row seat at the kitchen table, I applauded. I cheered. I complimented her form. I praised her distance. I marveled at her bravery.<\/p>\n
Then she did something I was not expecting. She came over and wrapped her little arms around my neck and whispered, \u201cThank you, Mama.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was sold.<\/p>\n
The Fake Glance was officially buried.<\/p>\n
The Authentic Gaze was embraced.<\/p>\n
Instead of taking a quick (and often forgettable) mental snap shot of my daughter\u2019s \u201cperformances,\u201d I vowed to start taking video. Invaluable video. Setting the lens of my eye on one beautiful moment to capture forever.<\/p>\n
In fact, one of my favorite invaluable videos<\/em> was taken recently when my husband asked my four-year-old to make her own NCAA picks.<\/p>\nHe went through each college or university but instead of saying \u201cMichigan or Tennessee,\u201d he said, \u201cM or T?\u201d<\/p>\n
There were A LOT of picks to be made.\u00a0 And she was into it. I could\u2019ve easily slipped away unnoticed to straighten up the house, do some laundry, or catch up on email. But instead I sat there and the invaluable video<\/em> began rolling.<\/p>\nI witnessed her choosing the letter R over the letter N because \u201cRachel\u201d starts with R.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\nI watched as her eyes rolled upward and scratch her curly head as she thought through each \u201cimportant\u201d decision carefully.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\nI heard a short story about her Uncle Brad triggered by the selection of the letter B.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\nI witnessed her finding she had the power to change her mind and select a different letter by saying, \u201cNo, I don\u2019t want M. Actually, I choose S.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\nI watched my husband\u2019s surprised facial expressions as she amazingly managed to select a mighty fine final four line up of Duke, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, and Louisville. <\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\nAnd the background of this invaluable video was my laughter, my joy, and the sound of my heart beating with happiness. <\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\nI often say I am simply the messenger on this Hands Free journey. And today the message that comes from something far greater than me is this: Bury the Fake Glance. Adopt the Authentic Gaze. Go beyond the mental snap shot and roll the video. Capture the once-in-a-lifetime moments that develop in front of your eyes.\u00a0 These are the moments you will play over and over in your mind when you are old and gray. These are the moments you will tragically miss if you look away. <\/strong><\/p>\nAnd the side bonus is the fact that the star of the show will thank you\u2026in ways you cannot begin to imagine.<\/p>\n
Do you have any habits that could fall into the category of The Fake Glance? Think about your daily interactions with your loved ones, friends or colleagues. Is there something you do that they could call you out on? Why not call yourself out? Bury the old habit, the one that prohibits connection, and embrace a new one\u2026one that creates the lasting bonds to a beautiful relationship. Please click the \u201cshare\u201d button if you think greater personal connection is a message worth spreading.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve spent the last two posts writing about making eye contact with your children or loved ones when they speak to you.\u00a0 Why? Because the personal connection derived through eye contact plays a critical role in grasping what really matters. I guess you could say that on the Hands Free Mama Scale of Importance, looking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[210,18],"tags":[58,14,206,52,10,216,215,207,214,53,213,217,1518],"gutentor_comment":5,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/DSC_0024-e1300927799314.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1fUJF-gT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}