Aloha,
My family and I have just returned from a wonderful spring break vacation in Oahu, Hawaii. It was wonderful – sunny and relaxing, and surprise, surprise – mitzvahs occurred even on our tropical vacation.
Since I didn’t have a computer with me I had to write down all of the mitzvahs to record when I returned. A couple had some fun stories to go with them.
Here they are..
108) On the way to the hotel at the airport, I spilled my tea drink on myself and it got all over my white sweater, at the hotel I asked one of the cleaning ladies if she had any dish washing soap as that helps get out everything. She didn’t have it on her cart, but went to the kitchen for me and knocked a few minutes later with item. I was so grateful to her for doing that mitzvah for me. I decided to call the manager of the hotel and tell him. He appreciated the call with a compliment not a complaint and promised she would be told. So one mitzvah begets another.
109) That night at dinner our bill was $38. When the hostess ran my credit card she only charged $28. I told her about the mistake and gave her my card back to run the additional $10. A wonderful discussion ensued on the way to the car with my 9 year old. When I asked her if that counted as a mitzvah. She said, “Well you had to tell her she hadn’t charged you enough.” I thought yes you do!!
110-116) On the airplane, I wrote 6 thank you notes to the women business owners who had donated to my son’s auction from my networking group.
117) We had met a young girl in the airport while we waited to board the plane, during the flight she asked if she could sit with the kids and watch a movie they had brought. We kept an eye on her while she sat with our kids.
118) One of the first afternoons in Hawaii, I was lamenting the fact that we had to rent umbrellas on the beach and just after that a man came over to say he and his family were leaving back to Medford , Oregon and asked if we wanted to buy his umbrella and chairs. We actually weren’t prepared to pay what he originally asked, however when I went back to him to see if he would take our counter offer he said he had decided just to give them to us! We were thrilled to get the gift and I promised I would PAY IT FORWARD which we did on the last day of our trip to a nice family from New Jersey. It was wonderful to give and receive a mitzvah all in one!
119) We all got gifts from the hotel. Purple swim bags which they told us might run when they got wet. The first day, I saw a guest with hers on her shoulder at the beach and told her to be careful not to get it wet since it might run. She appreciated getting the information and thanked me.
120) One day when taking the bus to Chinatown, I tried to give up my seat to an older woman. I really think I offended her by assuming she would want to sit down. My husband says he just waits to see if someone is looking like they want to sit down and then offers his seat. A few minutes later a woman got on the bus, she sat next to me and started asking if my son was okay (he was wearing a bracelet on his wrist from the hotel that resembled the kind you get at the hospital). She asked lots of questions and it was clear to me she had some learning disabilities. I continued talking to her and tried to answer all her questions until we got off the bus.
121) In Chinatown, we went to get a smoothie at a place we had heard about, I was waiting in line when a man and his son cut in front of me. Normally, I might have been irritated by him but instead, I decided to just wait patiently until after they were done rather than be annoyed with them.
122) One evening, we were enjoying music on the terrace of a hotel, a man was looking for a chair so I waved him over and told him we had an extra one he could take to use.
123) Complimented someone on her beautiful outfit.
124) Someone recommended that I count smiles in my mitzvah project. I think of myself as a smiley person and that just seemed too easy, however, every morning in Hawaii I woke up early and walked on the sidewalk near the beach at sunrise. It was a wonderful time of day and easy to be giddy. One morning I was particularly smiley and said good morning to everyone I passed. When I was almost back to the hotel, an older man, a stranger, smiled at me and said, “It’s so wonderful to see you today!” After that I was beaming from ear to ear. I shared his mood with the rest of the folks I saw that morning on my walk.
125) On our last morning at the beach, I gave a little girl our pails to use to make her own sand castles. She seemed happy to get them.
126) Tips – I have no idea if these count. But we tipped everyone we could as a way to say an extra thank you. Especially the taxi drivers, cleaning ladies, concierge, bell cap etc. I am counting that as at least one mitzvah.
I wanted to record as well, another two mitzvahs we received. Towards the end of the week, the concierge of the hotel gave us a boogie board (which my 6 year old was thrilled to receive) and a couple more chairs. You realize on a trip like this you can’t take it with you so it’s best just to pass it along to someone else when you have to leave.
One night my husband and I went out for a special fancy dinner. The service was fantastic however my fish was very disappointing. I only ate about half of it. I politely let them know but since I had never had that kind of fish before I had nothing to compare it too. My husband and I ordered their special dessert. I was surprised and delighted when they gave us the dessert for free to compensate for the meal (which had already been discounted with our Entertainment Card). Needless to say, this change my attitude about the meal and I felt compensated for the fish.
1,000 Mitzvahs 