Karma come, Karma go

Hello, lovelies. It would be easy to say that many of us have had an experience in our lives that could have had a disastrous outcome, if it wasn’t for the hand of Karma stepping in and lending a hand. But does karma actually exist? Is there really an all-knowing sense of right and wrong that steps in when ever we are short changed? Does the saying, you reap what you sow, hold any truth? What goes around, will it really come around? Is there really such a thing as karma? Or is it just a way to hope that people really do get what they deserve? I’m not normally known for my belief in karma. I mean, really! Who is to say what good things should happen to another human being if they behave badly? But this just might have been the week to prove me wrong. Now, I have always tried to keep out of anything that doesn’t involve me, but as I was out shopping, and I found myself being pulled into a very unexpected situation. I needed to get some food for the week, so I packed up my car and drove to the shops. I parked my car and took out my trusty shopping trolley from the boot. Yes, I know that make me very middle aged, but why should you have to carry the bags you can pull them instead? As quickly as possible, I grabbed everything I needed and made my way to the checkouts. As I was standing in the queue, the elderly man in front of me started shouting rude, sexist and racist threats to the member of staff on the till. It all started so quickly, before I was aware of what was going on, I was standing almost in the middle of it all. I fought for a second with my conscience. Should I really step in? What had anything had to do with me. No one else was doing or saying anything, should it really all fall on my shoulders? But I knew that there was no way I was going to let this man continue saying what he was still spewing. So, I loudly said, ‘Excuse me, but it’s really not okay to talk like that.’ Ha! That should have done it. Well, no. He turned super quickly and began a barrage of abuse at me. Saying that as a 75-year-old man, he deserved my respect. Yikes. I’m not even going to get into that. But again, I told him that he can not say the sexist racist things to anyone, especially not a member of staff in our local supermarket. And long story short, the man silently paid for his items and left. Phew, I really told him what for. But had I done the right thing? It didn’t feel so at the time. But I found out that I had once I returned to my car. But what is this mythical thing, karma? Karma means action, work, or deed. And it can cause or influence the future of that individual. In layman’s terms our actions are the deciding factor. It is a term about the cycle of cause and effect. According to the theory of Karma, what happens to a person, happens because they caused it with their actions. The idea of Karma first appears in the oldest Hindu text the Rigveda, around 1500 BCE. But is it real? Karma is a real social/psychological reaction. So it is real? Cool. If you go around willing to help people and taking time to be friendly, those people in return will be a bit nicer to others, and, if nothing else, they are less embittered, and are themselves more willing to help others. And for those who are mean, angry and bitter will have the same returned to them. Being nice makes others nice. Being mean and rude will bring that back to you. Got it. So how did karma come back to me? Well, when I was walking up to my car, I saw that somehow my boot was open, and it appears to have been so for the whole hour that I had been shopping. I had left my car open and full of my important and somewhat expensive stuff. Like my sat nav, my debit card and my son’s mobile all sitting on the front seat. Yes, I know! How could I have done it? Not check to see if my car was all locked up and safe, and safely hidden from view. I would like to say that I ran over, but that would be a total lie. I fast walked over, only to see that everything was still there. Everything. Nothing had been taken. I had been extremely lucky and fortuitous and could leave the car park with everything that I had arrived with. Had karma been the cause of my good luck? Was my stepping in and stopping a racist, sexist attack been just what was needed to stop anyone from taking everything, including my car. Does karma work like that? I don’t know. But I do now that someone or something was looking out for me that day. We all can feel and act mean and cranky at times. It doesn’t mean that bad things will happen to us, but it does mean that if we are always nasty to others, others will be nasty back. It is super hard to be nice all the time, but if there is something that is stopping us form greeting each day with just a little joy and happiness in our hearts, then we need to work out what it is, and start working towards bringing a little bit of karma into our lives. Karma can mean rebirth, and we can begin anew every day.