Universe and Volunteering

Yesterday I had volunteer training for when his Holiness the Dalai Lama comes to Brisbane. I'm amazed at this wonderful opportunity of helping and being in the presence of his Holiness.


The mister and I are not religious. He is an atheist and I am spiritual. I've been told in the past that being spiritual is being a Christian but I disagree. I don't believe in religion. I do, however, respect others beliefs especially if it enriches others lives. 


I believe that Buddhism is a cultural way of life rather than religious. Buddhism encourages belief in self and enrichment of one's mind. That appeals to both the mister and myself which is why munchkin was blessed rather than christened.

Buddhist Blessing

Earlier this year I received word that his Holiness was coming to Australia and they were looking for volunteers. I love everything about volunteering so immediately signed up.

Yesterday morning I was a bit anxious because I didn't know what to expect. I wasn't feeling sick though, more excited. My body still gets confused between being nervous and excited. 


The mister dropped me off at Southbank about fifteen minutes early. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Brisbane, Southbank is on the river opposite Brisbane city. It's connected by LOTS of bridges so it's easy to get across. It's also still affected by the January floods with some restaurants, parks and pools still closed. It's so beautiful walking by the river so that's what I did first, straight down for a five minute walk by the river. 

Brisbane from Southbank

After my beautiful, peaceful walk I made my way to the Suncorp Piazza where our training was held. I sat down on the grass ready to write when I looked up and saw a woman walking towards the Piazza. I don't know why but I felt drawn to her so asked her if she was attending the same training session. She said yes and sat down for a chat.


We chatted for so long and so easily we ended up being fifteen minutes late to the session. We discovered that we are studying the psychology through the same University which was amazing (it's not a Brisbane university) and I helped calm her nerves about the exact unit that I was nervous about. 


It's amazing that the universe brought us together and we got along all day. In fact we both decided that the universe was free to make our plans for the rest of the day as it had been so kind introducing us. It's so lovely connecting with someone, not only over what was obvious common grounds but other common grounds that were not obvious at all.


The training session there was fun and I met some wonderful people. There was another one an hour and half later so after having lunch with the mister and munchkin I was early for the other session. This session was outside near the Riverstage. I bought a coke and laid on the grass relaxing and writing. It was so peaceful and beautiful.

Relaxing

After the session I walked through the city and realised that I wasn't comfortable leaving munchkin that night. We had a party to go to with my high school friends and I was looking forward to it. The problem was that it was over an hour away and we were catching public transport. We didn't have the money to catch a cab home if anything happened with munchkin and we've never been that far away from him before (mum's house is only half hour away). I called the mister and he understood especially as munchkin is teething and can have trouble sleeping. 


I cancelled our attendance at the party (sorry Kel) and we decided that we would go local instead. We had a date night. Something we haven't had in a long time. So back to Southbank we went and headed for drinks at the Plough Inn before seeing Pirates of the Caribbean 4 at the movies. 


It was so lovely spending time together and talking. Really talking. Drinking, dancing (me), singing (also me) and being us, not just munchkin's parents. We reconnected again and were reminded that we need to do this more often.


Yesterday was fabulous. Thank you the Mister. Thank you universe.