Someone gave me my first Ben’s Bell today . . .
Okay, technically it is a Ben’s Bell Coin, but still I am incredibly humbled by the gesture. For those who are unfamiliar with the organization, it celebrates kindness for the sake of kindness. When the founders of Ben’s Bells son died suddenly and tragically, they took note of the random acts of kindness that were occurring around them and inspired by those acts. They were making wind chimes as a therapeutic release for the loss they were experiencing and decided that on the anniversary of their son’s death they would go around Tucson and hang the chimes that they had made in random places to honor their son. Each ‘bell’ had a note on it that only asked the finder to take it home with them as a reminder to spread kindness.
You cannot purchase a Ben’s Bell. The only way to get one is to find one, or to be given one.
Well apparently along the way they have started to make smaller versions called Ben’s Bell Coins. The premise of these ‘coins’ is to be on the look out for a person who shares some form of kindness with another person and give them one of the coins to acknowledge their kindness. Then, when you receive the coin, you are supposed to pay it forward by acknowledging someone else's kindness and present them with the coin.
I came to work this morning with this coin sitting on my keyboard. While I have a few ideas of who could have put it there, I do not know for sure who it was nor do I know what act of kindness I may have done to deserve it. But that is the point – to celebrate the kind things that people do, not because someone was looking, but because it is the right thing to do.
Words cannot express how humbled I am that someone deemed something I did yesterday worthy of receiving this coin. But it also made me feel very happy and blessed.
What a great idea – to reward kindness with another act of kindness. I cannot wait to pay this forward!
Until next we meet.
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