The Grace Of Love Abounds, Overwhelms

Love is less a feeling than a thousand tiny acts of kindness.

This is a thank you to all who have come along with me on my journey thus far and my path to becoming a certified yoga teacher in particular. I was having problems paying for the 200Hour Yoga Teacher training with the payment plan offered initially. I was given some suggestions on how to help pay for the training and I took them. A good friend from work suggested I throw a garage sale as an idea to raise money to pay for my 200Hour YTT. My yoga teacher encouraged all of us to ask the Universe for what we need, giving us examples of how that principle has worked specifically for her in her life. Thus began the “thousand tiny acts of kindness”.

My best friend volunteered her home in the town where we both live to have what became the first of two garage sales. She also came up with the brilliant idea to sell baked goods alongside the yard sale! My good friend from work that suggested the original garage sale idea volunteered her sister’s house as well. Thank God, her sister is also a very good friend, who is used to getting “voluntold” (their family term!) to help! After checking with her, I was committed to throwing two garage sales two weeks apart. I put the word out to all of my friends at work and my 12 step meetings I would need donations of “stuff from their closets and garages”. What transpired was an inundation of clothes, small appliances, tchotchkes, kitchen wares, lamps, pictures, shoes, sporting equipment, games, a couch and a treadmill for the first local garage that took place yesterday! Plus donations of delicious baked goods! Help came from friends, family, my fellow yogis, teachers, and spiritual advisors.

The night before the garage/bake sale Dawny and I asked a friend to help collect and deliver some tables. He stayed that night to help set up the easy-up canopy, the tables and organize all of the stuff. He also showed up the next day without being asked, stayed until the end to help clean up and haul the unsold items to our local thrift store in the back of his pickup truck. There was another sister-friend who came by Friday night to drop off some last minute items, stayed to help us organize stuff and was my first “pre-sale” customer! She spent $23 on baked goods, clothes and bought me a set of wrought iron lanterns I coveted for my outdoor patio.

The day of, I got to Dawny’s at 5:30am and she’d already hauled a lot of the items out into her driveway. A friend dropped off her two cakes at 6:30am and our first early customer showed up. The day was a steady parade of strangers shopping & snacking. My BFF and her hubby came Friday night for moral support, then again on Saturday to give a straight cash donation. Angel-friends, fellow yogis, and spiritual kin dropped by to buy a few items with a wad of cash, telling me to keep the change. Another spiritual kin sister, who I KNEW was struggling financially, showed up and bought a few things to show her love & support. After the sale was over and I went on to a meeting at the library there were others who insisted on paying me for the leftover baked goods I donated to the meeting. And another sister-friend who came to find me at the meeting with a wad of cash to “donate” because she wasn’t able to make it to the garage sale in person. The final tally was $624.00!

Two weeks ago I had one-third of the amount I needed to be saved on my own. Now, with the garage/bake sale and my continued saving I have two-thirds with one more garage sale in my future! The grace of your loving kindness overwhelms and humbles me.