The friend notification appeared like so many others. “Kevin Hall wants to be friends on Facebook.”
Kevin Hall? The name wasn’t familiar to me. I went on the internet to find out more. A short time earlier, I connected with Chad Hymas, and discovered that they were good friends. Kevin Hall, I learned, was a business consultant, speaker and the author of Aspire: Discovering Your Purpose Through the Power of Words
Intrigued, I accepted his friend request and shortly after, Kevin left a comment. “I tried barefooting and ripped off some toenails in the process,” he wrote. Of course, anyone who barefoots captures my attention these days. I began visiting his page on a daily basis, buoyed by the positive quotes and sharing that he put forth.
“Can you tell me more about you?” I asked in a direct message.
Kevin wrote back, “My purpose in life is help others discover and fulfill their purpose. That is the objective of Aspire and we have been receiving some wonderful feedback on it. Please don’t hesitate to let me know how I can serve you. Namasté.”
I don’t often order books since I prefer to use the library, but something inside of me told me to order his book. I asked Kevin what made him reach out to connect with me on Facebook.
“Probably just destiny,” he wrote. “We are all connected Karen and we are all in this together trying to do our best to contribute and make a difference. Excited to hear your thoughts as you read Aspire.”
I brought the book with me on my trip up to Wisconsin to barefoot with Joann O’Connor. There was no time to read, as we spent three days on the water. After working a picnic for ZVRS, I woke up early the next day and decided to read the book and nurse my sore muscles with a hot bath. Hours later, I finally emerged and I knew I was in the middle of a book that I would treasure for a long time.
Kevin wrote the book centered around eleven words. In the foreword by Stephen R. Covey titled “Finding Your Bliss,” he writes:
The more you understand words and the layers within them, the more it helps you understand your path and purpose.
Right after reading the very first chapter, I knew that it was indeed, destiny, that connected me to Kevin Hall. Within the first chapter, I found a word that I wanted to share with my audience at the Family Support Conference which took place yesterday.
“How many of you have heard of the word, ‘Genshai’?” I asked.
Not a single hand went up.
Genshai (pronounced GEN-shy) means simply that you never treat anyone else in a manner that makes them feel small. This includes yourself. Kevin kindly gave me a speech lesson via an interpreter on the videophone so that I could confidently pronounce it during my presentation.
This word struck home with me because growing up, I measured myself against folks with normal hearing– simply because all of my friends and role models were people who could hear. Thus, I felt small in some ways. “If only I had normal hearing, I would do this… or do that…” I thought. That view was occasionally reinforced by others who felt I couldn’t or shouldn’t do certain things because I was lacking the full sense of hearing. In college, I wanted to become a labor and delivery nurse. The counselor that I consulted gave me a hundred reasons why that profession was not right for me: the communication challenges would be too great and it would be hard to find anyone to hire me. What a message! Of course, I felt small after leaving this session and this partly lead me to chose another profession. A few years later, I met deaf doctors, deaf dentists, deaf lawyers… and of course, deaf nurses!
I wanted the professionals, the parents, the deaf and hard of hearing adults in the audience to walk away with this word and incorporate it into everything they do when working with deaf and hard of hearing children. The field is strife with communication wars, short-changed expectations and opposing camps who cannot sit down and connect with one another openly. When you practice Genshai with everyone you meet, your mind is open to new possibilities and your heart listens. You blaze a kinder path in your wake.
After I closed the book, I had to ask myself, “Am I living my life’s purpose?” I know I’m still the process of discovery with my life path. I’ve done some wonderful things, but there’s a sense of so much more ahead– more that I want to experience and share. I’m excited at the possibilities that lie ahead and I’m filled with joy at the things that I’m doing now.
Thank you, Kevin, for reaching out on Facebook.