The Buoyancy of Inter-connection

Dear Friends,

When Karma Kitchen saw an unusual number of last-minute crew cancellations last week, three last-minute heroes (Eva, Sue and Ami) stepped forward and a "lean, mean" crew of nine took charge this Sunday with a buoyancy and ease that first-timer Neesha couldn’t help but remark on.

So many wonderful stories from the day --- visitors from Hawaii, LA, India and more! A woman drops by with beautiful handcrafted “Blessing packets” each with a message of affirmation and a humble gift inside, another guest offers up a bluesy rendition of Swing Low Sweet Chariot and invites the restaurant to sing along, roommates who haven’t seen each other in years meet randomly at the door, an anthropology student stays three hours talking to guests and volunteers (research for a six-week study on Karma Kitchen). Next week he’s on the crew :) At Karma Kitchen you never know who you are going to serve – or who’s going to serve you.

It was hard not to be grateful for all the inter-connections that surfaced during the day (and yes that was our theme!). Susan Louie came in as a guest and left after serving a full, impromptu shift as a volunteer. Effervescent Eva served a spiritual teacher at one table and received special counsel about her own upcoming trip to Afghanistan (not to mention found a kindred spirit in fellow volunteer Susan B. who works with Afghani women), Susan generously offered to carpool into Berkeley early to assist with set-up, and served tables all the way through with her own special sparkle, Bhoutik a KK pillar was everywhere, doing dessert runs, pulling in backups, handling dirty dishes, even giving international student guests a breakdown of Karma Kitchen’s spirit in Chinese :) Dipa who showed up despite an ankle brace plated radiantly through the whole afternoon, with Neesha at her side (now an official “old-timer”) quietly tuned in to the underlying beauty of the backend, Justine who touched us all with her presence and her decision to show up for generosity in a time of fresh loss, filling gaps on the back and front ends with ease, Ami who took on the role of Interface and rocked it in her unassuming way, Kye whose smooth competence, dedication and even-keel as a server or dishwasher make him such an asset to any crew – Thank you All for bringing your best to Karma Kitchen and serving whole-heartedly.

In celebration of all the myriad inter-connections, seen and unseen,

Pavi