<\/em><\/p>\nI couldn\u2019t believe it. He was amazed that I took the time to send a letter\/tip and now I was even more amazed that he wrote back to thank me!\u00a0 The simple task that took a mere ten minutes to complete ended up being so much more than paying for a forgotten tip.<\/p>\n
Through my gesture to Dan, I had restored his belief in the goodness and integrity of people. Through his gesture to me, he had confirmed that words of kindness and respect are invaluable, and I should take the time to say them (or write them) more often.<\/p>\n
It would have been much easier, much more convenient, to simply forget about neglecting to tip my waiter. I am sure I could have said, \u201cI will do it tomorrow,\u201d until too much time had passed to do anything at all. And I am sure I could have justified my inaction by telling myself that it would probably not make any difference.<\/p>\n
But I didn\u2019t. I vividly remember the day I stood in the kitchen and told myself, \u201cDo it now, while you are thinking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
I remember looking at the half unloaded dishwasher and dirty dishes in the sink that beckoned me to complete what I had started. Yet, I knew if I went ahead and finished that task, the thought of writing to Dan would pass. And then it would be gone.<\/p>\n
Going Hands Free. Letting go\u2026to grasp what really matters.<\/p>\n
I let go of a dirty dish and grasped the untarnished side of humanity.<\/p>\n
Lord knows I am a Hands Free Work In Progress, but this time, yes, this time, I got it right.<\/p>\n
Do you have a nagging thought of someone you need to thank or acknowledge? Instead of pushing it off, take time to do it now. It doesn\u2019t have to be a page-long eloquently written piece…simply a sentence or two, explaining what\u2019s on your heart. Grasping what matters. Isn\u2019t that what life is all about?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I recently had the opportunity to practice one of my Hands Free strategies, which is called Take Time to Say It. Making an effort to express appreciation for people in my life through note writing has always been one of my \u201cBright Spots.\u201d Although my tendency is to write notes to people I already know, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":708,"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":[21],"tags":[32,72,99,1519,98,11],"gutentor_comment":6,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/IMG_33681-e1296318284450.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1fUJF-br","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709"}],"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=709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}