Ben’s Bells
I haven’t been getting into Tucson sparkliness nearly enough. However, I experience some things and feel the need to put them out into the universe with a scream of delight. This morning was one of those such days.
In light of the recent shooting horror/hooplah/focus, Tucson has been licking its wounds, forming together, and making sense of the situation (most of the time this has been in positive ways, although it’s seemed at times that things were getting a little too engrossed in the tragedy). In an extremely uplifting memorial, Ben’s Bells (bensbells.org) decided to do a 1,400 bell distribution and to increase the call for intentional kindness to others.
Huddled together at 7am in the plaza, we listened to a beautiful speech with tears glistening in our eyes as the mother of Ben who died 9 years ago talked about some of her stories with kindness to herself when she was in need and later to other strangers. She said she wanted to tell the person who held open the door, “You just saved my life” on some days, but didn’t.
Then we dispersed with maps and bells to take certain neighborhoods and hang about 5 bells per team. We hung the bells from trees and fences in cemeteries, parking lots, and parks… trusting that the person who finds the bell will be in need of a little kindness. (Aren’t we all?)
For whatever reason, this January I’ve been more into trying to change my life (I hate the cliche of “New Years resolutions”). One of the things Jeanette said was that in order to be more kind, we need to take more time. Leave for work 5 minutes earlier so we aren’t rushing through traffic and can let that person out in front of us. If we’re rushing, sometimes we don’t take a moment to look in another’s eyes and connect. This isn’t hard and it’s what breathes life into everyone’s experiences.
