Home-Start Gift Bags

Over the last few months members of the youth wing separated into groups to focus on different charity projects. Our group, Team Oneness’ charity project was to create gift bags for the charity Home- Start. 

Home-Start is a leading family support charity in the UK which aids families with young children deal with challenges they face. Volunteers from the charities support an array of families including families struggling with post-natal depression, physical health problems and bereavement. 

We felt this was a valuable charity to support as the charity helps build a stable, loving environment for children which is fundamental for their future. 

We decided to create gifts bags for the charity so they could distribute these to a number of families facing a difficult time in their lives. 

With a set budget and brief to create gift bags to brighten up someone’s day and help them relax, we began selecting items to include in our bag. Finally we decided on a variety of items such as herbal teas, mugs, candles and various toiletries such as bubble baths, which you can see in the picture below. 

We also decided to attach a leaflet to give the families a supportive message and to inform them about the youth wing and our mission. 

It was fun putting the bags together and working together for such a great cause. 

As a group, we thoroughly enjoyed making the gift bags and hope to do similar projects in the future. 

November 2016 Meeting

In this month’s meeting, the youth had begun with a very deep and insightful discussion about our personal views about the soul and the bodies that we live in. This allowed us to explore the idea of whether we see our bodies as souls or as souls, with a body.  It was an interesting discussion to see what everyone thought about these individual concepts and whether we see them as separate aspects of our existence.  

This lead to a further discussion about what we think happens to our bodies and our souls when we reach the time of death. Does our soul die with our body? Or, does it continue to live on? Again, it was amazing to listen to what people had to say about their views on this matter.  There was a great diversity in the ideas being shared, by all ages in the youth wing, which I think increased our awareness of how we truly feel about this topic. We all gained insight from one another. 

One of the views that strongly stood out to me, were from some of the younger youth members, who shared the idea that they thought that the soul resides in our hearts, and it is innately connected to the conscious/unconscious decisions that we make in our day to day lives. 

Some of the older youth members, like myself, shared the similar view that we are souls, with a body and the body is used as a vehicle to allow us to fulfil our individual Dharma’s.  A couple of us also thought that when we die, it is only our body that die, but our soul continues to live on as it is eternal. The soul will just disintegrate into small matter (that is all around us) and will find a new home in another life form. According to the Bhagavad Gita and ancient Vedic scriptures, that have deeply influenced my personal views on this matter, our souls are ‘reborn’ in to a new life form that it takes on, depending on our karmic energies and the level of consciousness that we attain in our human life form. This is the idea of ‘Oneness’ or being interconnected with all sentient beings. 

Following on from this discussion, the youth also had a debate about the “Impermanence” of life – exploring references from philosophical books such as ‘The Complete Conversations with God’. This group discussion allowed us to critically analyse quotations from this reference and think about how everything in this life is impermanent, but this concept of impermanence is in fact permanent. Everything in this life will continue to change, to elevate our consciousness or connection with the divine being. This is to allow us to fulfil our individual Dharma’s. Cross references were also made with the teachings of the Buddha, stating that we are here to accept what is and understand that in the permanence of impermanence, there is always something to be learned – by the object and the observer and this is our greatest teacher. Our experiences – good or bad.

Quotes on impermanence