Organising free classes of yoga and meditation for the general public can be expensive, especially when one takes into account rental of city centre venues. Now and again we have to have little fundraising projects to help us along. Whilst our objective is to raise money, the ultimate goal is to see these projects as being opportunities to transcend the logistical challenges involved, having joy along the way and not placing too much importance on the results.

This weekend found us running a stall and operating parking facilities for a weekend event that was taking place close to where Paula grew up. Thankfully, we had a lot of help from folks outside the Dublin Centre.

Paula’s family were extremely supportive and let 6 of us stay with them on Saturday night, smiled as we ate them out of house and home and even let us play croquet on the back lawn despite our best attempts to turn it into a contact sport! Mangala’s brother kindly lent us a canopy and equipment to from our stall.

During the weekend, we managed to perform an impromptu concert for Paula’s family, and we had our center meditation at Paula’s house in the country late on Sunday evening before dinner and heading home.

Being together in this way gives each person a focus on the important things in life – sometimes it’s hard to see these on your own.
Projects like this are wonderful for bringing people from different backgrounds and areas of expertise in a spirit of oneness and working together as a team:

• Shane was our tour-de-force behind the counter and even managed some flute playing between the roar of arriving vehicles.
• Alex was on tea / coffee duty ensuring that kettles were full and boiling at all times and was to be seen on ‘kettle walks’ several times each day.
• Vinnie arrived from work on Sunday to bolster up the team on the busiest day.

We had a very successful outing where everybody in the Centre enjoyed the experience. For a young and growing yoga and meditation center, this weekend demonstrated that working together in a spirit of oneness and joy one can easily overcome challenges both physically and inwardly along each of our journeys!

 Ambarish