Buddha’s Birthday Lunch

From Barbara Lamb — Blog by Barbara Lamb

June 10, 2009

We celebrated Vesak, the Buddha’s birthday, at the Zen Centre this weekend. So many of our events seem to end with sharing food,and this was no exception- a vegetarian potluck lunch attended by over 100 well-wishers.

I’ve always loved potlucks. The beauty of tables laid out with everyone’s nicest platters, the variety of dishes, the way dal, soba salad and corn muffins come together on an overloaded plate. Kids head straight to the dessert table. Some eaters work their way methodically along the buffet, others dip and dive as the mood and food suit them. Seconds, or thirds, anyone?

Not that there was much left. A full morning of puppet shows, story telling and the elephant parade left us all with keen appetites and heartfelt gratitude for each other and the bounty before us.