The call to serve comes from the heart: Julia Pon'heart' case.
January 25th, 2023
Yesterday I met Julia Poncar again. We were classmates at Iese MBA in 2003 and we have contacted again because this year we celebrate the Class 20th Anniversary. As we were exchanging our thoughts about these type of events via WhatsApp we decided to have an online coffee to catch up and talk a bit more.
We hadn’t spoken for years and the first thing she tells me is how that very morning, on her way to work, the man who was driving right in front of her suddenly stopped the car and asked for help because he was not feeling well.
Julia —she explains to me— without thinking about it got out of her car and went to help him. She is not a doctor but she could feel something serious was going on (I am sure her triathlon training is valuable in these situations... ) . While the police woman was regulating the traffic and they waited for the medical aid (someone had called an ambulance) she decided to offer another kind of aid: to be by his side, give him some calmness and keep him awake. Talking to him she learned that Pablo, that is his name, is the father of two kids and as he said to Julia —I cannot leave them alone— . Actually they do the same sport as Julia’s children. It turns out that they have friends in common…
Once the ambulance arrived they took Pablo to the hospital.
In the afternoon, while we were both video-having-coffee via WhatsApp, Pablo was hospitalized in the intensive care unit. He had suffered a heart attack.
Beyond sharing our personal and professional stories of the past 20 years, our comings and goings, ups and downs, successes and failures… ours was a surprisingly enriching conversation thanks to Julia’s ACT OF SERVICE. We both said how in fact many times we fill our mouths with good words and intentions but when time comes to serve we choose to look away because we don’t know how to, we don’t want to or we think we have nothing to offer.
We both come from the business world and in fact we were talking yesterday that this is very common in the organizations. Marketing campaigns, strategy plans… all perfectly designed. Beautiful brands with artistic logos and impeccable visual identity, webs filled with MISION, VISION, VALUES and SUSTAINABILITY GOALS…
But words don’t teach, as many ancient masters and books tell us… it is our actions who truly reflect what drives our decisions and what "lives" insider our hearts: is it fear or courage, is it selfishness or generosity?.
Sometimes we think we only have “material” things to share (money, contacts, objects… ) or that we first have to have before we can give. We are not fully aware and don’t value the great “intangible” WEALTH AND ABUNDANCE we have inside ourselves and that is there, available to us at every single moment (it is priceless!). Endless and “unquantifiable” resources (can you imagine? 2 cups of compassion please…): conscious presence, patience, attention, joy, trust, peace, courage, comfort… it is all there for us to OFFER (as if it were our most luxurious product) and to SHARE everyday.
Life gave Julia the chance to continue her daily drive so she would not be late for work or to stop and offer her hand to Pablo. She chose and acted.
That is something neither books nor business schools teach. You learn to share by sharing, you learn to trust by trusting, you learn to love the other by loving…
At any given moment we all aspire to be useful and serve our society; to maybe become great and famous philanthropists. But what does that really that mean anyway? Thanks to Julia (whom from now on I shall call Julia Pon”heart” (the one who “puts” her heart (*note1)) I now understand it a bit better; philanthropy is a “daily” task; acting without seeking acknowledgement, without expecting something in return… without fear, simply because it is an action that come from inside, from the HEART.
I take advantage of these words to send my care to Pablo and his family.
I am here for you: I share what I have, I share who I am.
Written by Blanca López García
P.D Julia tells me that it was Pablo's wife who called the ambulance and that he is now evolving favorably.
Note 1: Pon in spanish is the imperative form of the verb "To put". So it is a word game to turn Julia's last name into"put/place her heart".