Ben Z

At a crucial time in my life, I felt compelled to make changes. The empathy in me was sickened by the pettiness of my casual day to day customers, complaining incessantly about color schemes.

I decided that there are bigger things in the world that I could be expending my time on. I applied at a homeless shelter.

Ben Z interviewed me. I became an employee at a downtown Phoenix homeless shelter that housed some of the worst of the worst. This was my first taste of working in Social Services. To this day, I have an enormous respect for the way Ben treated me and everyone he encountered. He had the ability to seek out your gifts and apply them accordingly. The traits that were less than, he did not focus on. He built you up first and THEN slowly showed you how your weaknesses could improve.

He gave you courage and hope and had an amazing sense of humor.

Laughter always helps. It keeps your sanity working in the field.

What Ben may or not ever realized, was that what he did exactly what I needed. My constant fear of failure used to eat at my confidence. He found my gifts and he put them under the light and the fears of failure drifted into the shadows, and slowly grew smaller.

He has truly, truly been an angel in my life.

To Ben Z, you know we all are inter-weaved. If one thread is weakened or tangled, the rows that make up the interweaving, lose their full function. And the mission to tighten the circle can be interrupted.

Thanks for untangling me! Thanks for giving me the courage to keep weaving into love and life and healing.

Namaste

Cathryn

Submitted by Anonymous

Teaching By Example