Working with a Flourish
by Eamon Ó Cléirigh
I popped up to the new Flourish centre this afternoon, up across from St Joseph’s church in Ballytivnan, to give a hand with the garden side of things. I’ve never been so didn’t really know what to expect, but when I walked in, I was met by a flurry of activity, with wheelbarrows being filled with soil for the newly built plant beds, many seeds being potted in the plastic-covered tunnels, and other jobs covered by an industrious group of volunteers.
My sense of it is that we had people with a wide range of skills volunteering themselves to an excellent cause. And I know from long experience how getting your fingers dirty, in soil and fertiliser, and nurturing seedlings, and working hard with a shovel or a rake, will have you feels pretty good about yourself and the world. Worked for me, anyway.
Having sussed out who was delegating, I said ‘Put me to work’, which is exactly what happened. For the next hour and a half, I filled my wheelbarrow with a high-quality soil mix and helped fill the row of large, raised plant beds, with the contents spread out by dedicated ‘rakers’. It was a serious workout but thoroughly enjoyable, and good craic, too, with plenty of chat as we queued to fill our barrows or offload the goods.
And the weather was just perfect: not too sunny but warm with it; a gorgeous day sandwiched between a wet Friday and an expected deluge on Easter Sunday. Not that the rain is much of an issue – if you live in the northwest, it’s not because you’re a fan of tropical conditions. We take it as it comes.
Because I had a notion to write a piece for the blog, I asked everyone their profession and was pleasantly surprised at the variety of backgrounds, including an actual gardener or two, a stained-glass artisan, an IT technician, a playwright, a social worker, a scientist, and a few others I can’t remember, though I know one woman looked after horses.
My sense of it is that we had people with a wide range of skills volunteering themselves to an excellent cause. And I know from long experience how getting your fingers dirty, in soil and fertiliser, and nurturing seedlings, and working hard with a shovel or a rake, will have you feels pretty good about yourself and the world. Worked for me, anyway.
Be sure to keep an eye on Flourish, as they have big plans ahead in relation to developing professional and community facilities to accommodate people with mental health issues in Sligo and the northwest.
