WordFood

WordFood - how we feed or starve our realtionships

- Julia Hubbel

Julia’s ability to get this group of type-A executives to engage in true networking was incredible. She is truly skilled at motivating the group to engage and interact with each other, and her openness and honesty really come through.

— Shelley Stewart, Jr.,
Senior Vice President of Operational Excellence and Chief Procurement Officer, Tyco

February 13, 2013

A Gift of WordFood

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , — Julia Hubbel @ 6:27 pm

He was tall and lanky, and wore black sweatpants and a sweatshirt. He covered his head with a ball cap. What caught my eye about him was his sudden swing to the top of the pull up bar, which required considerable strength and agility. It wasn’t something you usually saw at Bally’s. I stopped what I was doing and watched. He repeated the fluid, challenging movement four more times. Impressive. He let himself down gently, and took a break on one of the chest press benches.

Not long afterwards I was doing some shoulder presses when I again caught him out of the corner of my eye. This time he was doing pullups but at the top he was pulling his entire body up and over to the side. Again, this took far more strength and agility than a simple pullup, and it was a beautiful thing to watch. I put my weights down and enjoyed watching this quiet young man work. Over and over, he maneuvered his body into aerial positions that demanded great physical discipline and power.

When he finished, I put my dumbbells away and approached him. He had the wide open, friendly face of someone in his late teens or early twenties, and he pulled out his ear buds as I approached. I told him that he was a pure joy to watch, that his athleticism and his grace were fantastic. I added that nobody at the gym did the things that he did, and for me it was a delight to watch him in motion. His face filled with joy. Then he gave me his gift. He pulled up the fabric on his left leg and there were huge,  horrible scars. It looked as though someone had sewn his entire foot back on. Clearly this young man was coming back from a horrendous accident.

He looked at me, face full of appreciation, and said “You don’t know how much that means to me.” And I said that it meant a great deal to me, to see what he was doing with himself, and how brave he was. Whatever this young man has been through, he has met it, faced it, and overcome it, and is showing the rest of us at the gym how to express physicality with power, grace and courage.

This wonderful young man reminded me that we never know what others are going through, what they have endured, and how important it is to acknowledge them whether we know their journey or not. The key thing is to feed others the compliments they deserve. Every so often you will receive a gift in return that will more than return the favor, it will shift your life.

There is no guarantee that others will accept your words. But most often people are hungry for sincere WordFood, and it will strike fertile ground. Even if it doesn’t, your intent is what matters, and that is enough.

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