Yes, this quote is one of mine! A mantra I have constantly running in my head as a reminder to slow down, to look around, to notice, to care, to be present in my life, right here, right now.

I recently made time in my schedule to be interviewed by a sociology professor for her new book on friendship. As what often seems to happen when I try to be helpful to another person and their project, she ended up giving me a gift too.

She was very interested in my counseling private practice as well as my little e-book (shameless plug ahead, Life Transitions: Personal Stories of Hope Through Life’s Most Difficult Challenges and Changes) and wanted to know what the next step was for my book. Honestly, I had no idea what she was talking about, so I asked her what she meant, and she said that it seemed to her that the natural next step would be turning it into an audio book.

I looked into it that night, and you really have got to love Amazon, because the process was very easy and streamlined since my e-book was already on their website. So, I filled in the necessary information and put my e-book out for auditions by voice professionals, and went to bed.

My first audition came in the next morning, and the lady’s voice was amazing, but even more amazing was hearing the words I had written read by a trained actress!

I left my audition open for a week and had 17 incredible voices to choose from after those seven days. We had a great time as a family listening to all of them, and somehow my favorite also matched up with the rest of the family’s favorite! But, here’s the thing, while the person I choose had something extra special that we all heard and liked, every single person who auditioned would have done a great job. It was humbling for me to be in a position to get to pick one person for my project.

I took the time to listen to each and every tryout and after I made an offer (and it was accepted), I reached out and emailed each person who auditioned individually, as it just didn’t feel right to not say anything at all for all the time and effort each of these women put into their auditions. I said thank you, let them know that I appreciated their time and effort, that they had a gift (because I could hear it in each of their voices) and I wished them the best of luck as they pursued this (and other) life dreams. And in my mind, that was it…

But, here are the responses I received (when no response was expected or needed):

Very kind of you to say. Thank you!

Thank you so much for saying that, I really appreciate it. I wish you the best of luck with your book as well!

Thanks Heidi ; )

Thank you for your kind words and for taking the time to listen to my audition. I truly enjoyed reading the audition script for your book. I am fairly new to this field and would appreciate any critiques you might have.

I wish you the best in your practice and future authorship.

Thank you so very much for the kind words. Needed a pick me up!

Thank you so much; I really appreciate the note. I hope you have found an excellent narrator for you book, and that you have lots of success with it!

Thank you, Heidi! Good luck with your project.

Thank you, Heidi! Best to you as well!

Thank you for your kind reply. Best of luck!

Thank you very much! Good luck to you as well!!!

Thank you very much for your encouragement! I wish you two the best of luck as well!

**And finally this one…

Thank you so much for taking the time to send this personal note! I’m new to this and you are the first person to take the time to share some encouraging words – I’m going to print it out and put it on my wall for inspiration to keep trying. Thank you so much and I wish you all the best for all that you do!!

What did all this remind me? That we are all in this together! That we all have our struggles, struggles that are so often not evident to the outside world. That a few sincere, kind words (even as part of a rejection!) can make a huge impact, and might be exactly what someone needed to hear in that moment in time, something important that would have easily been brushed aside by the “I’m too busy” mentality.

Make time in your life to do the important things now, because they really do matter!

So, what’s one thing you can do today to help you be more present and less rushed in this moment, and how can you use this “found time” to make someone else’s life just a little bit brighter too?