Relax

It was just another day at the restaurant. The sun was starting to come out from behind the clouds at 7:15 in the morning. Fresh coffee was brewing in the coffee pot. The smell of coffee, bacon, and eggs was wafting throughout the entire restaurant. My father was cooking orders in the kitchen, while I answered orders for a few of the diners' regular customers and tried to make the most of the day as always. Some customers have tricky orders or want something that's not really on the menu. I try my best to accommodate the customers as best I can. I have to usually explain to the chef or my dad that the customer has an allergy. Certain foods like shrimp can affect people and if it is cooked in the grease of something else like fish the shrimp could still cause an allergic reaction as some of the byproducts of the shrimp may have gotten onto the fish a customer ordered. All in all it was just another day. I got out my laptop to play some jazz music and keep things lively.

When the time shifted into late morning around 10:30 something new happened, a new experience. A customer came into the restaurant to get her usual meal and as I packed up the meal for her; she began to say thank you and walk out the diner to her car, and go about her daily tasks for the day. She ended up coming back a little heartbroken and stressed, because she couldn't get her car to work as it just broke down on her. I looked up and took notice of how distraught she was feeling and while I was still taking orders from other customers I decided to tell her one simple word relax. Relax, “I said to her.” This was the simplest thing I could think of. I told her that it would be alright and that this happened to me once before as well. We can call someone and if you want to you can come inside and wait. The restaurant we have is nice and we have a dining area you can sit in while waiting for help. She calmed down a bit after I talked to her, but she still looked a little stressed. She ended up calling her husband and waited a while for him in the lobby. 

Her husband eventually came in about 30 minutes later. When he came inside he had her go sit in his car. Her husband ended up getting a tow service for her vehicle. I hadn’t noticed at the time that she had left. The husband came inside and thanked me for telling her to relax and be patient as nothing like that had ever happened to her before. Sadly, I did miss my chance to say no problem or tell him it was fine as I was thinking about other things in the restaurant that needed to be taken care of. I still do remember the lady and her husband telling me thank you for calming her down. I don't know if what i said to her changed her life or not. I do know one thing showing kindness and expressing words such as relax can help someone through a really tough time no matter how small the situation. The particular moment the husband told me thank you made me realize just how good it is to be kind sometimes. Maybe, next time to whoever is reading this you take an honest look at a situation or a person and just say relax, it will be okay. Sometimes the simplest things can make all the difference and now I look at life from a different perspective. Relax

I am also working on starting a series of novels where you will often see characters and protagonist doing the impossible because can't can't do anything but you can. Subscribe here for biweekly emails on novel release dates and free chapters or click this link to be directed to my website https://www.reddragonfiction.com/ “The dragon doesn’t roar to be heard — it waits until the silence makes you listen.”

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