Karma in action
When I bought my new motorcycle it died the moment I tried to drive off. The previous owner was dumbfounded. The friendly neighborhood police officer stopped by, and, knowing the owner, was similarly dumbstruck. The bike had served its owner flawlessly for years. I was suddenly thwarted from driving it back home.
Later that day I received a call from the old owner. It was the battery. It suddenly stopped holding a charge. He felt bad about the whole thing and wanted to deliver it to me in Boston. He drops it off, we shake hands, and I start wheeling it through a few three-point-turns into its new parking space. Just before he’s gone it leans away from me and falls over, causing cosmetic damage to the fairing, and breaking the front break lever. Fortunately he heard it fall and helped me to lift it back up. The broken handle, however, suddenly thwarted me from attempting to ride it up to Gabriel’s birth. Which I may very well have tried.
Now, some people would see these events as just “bad luck”, or “unfortunate”. Me? I don’t believe in luck of either form. I don’t believe in coincidence, and I believe that we get what we need, not what we want. I believe in karma like the Pope believes in God: without any doubt. I also believe that the universe has a purpose for every one of us, and that it will help us to achieve that purpose for as long as the window of opportunity remains open. I believe that there are signs of the universe helping us with what we need every day. We just have to be willing to accept that what we want is not necessarily what we need, and just because something looks bad now, doesn’t mean it won’t have god effects in the long term.
I believe that those two “problems” with the bike helped to keep me alive. I don’t think I’m ready for this bike without a good deal of practice in big empty parking lots, and simply wasn’t aware of how unready I am.
I believe that every “bad” think that has ever happened to you or me has happened for a positive reason. Sometimes we needed to learn a hard lesson. Sometimes, we just needed to be kept alive. Maybe there’s something “bad” that’s happened to you lately that could benefit from a different perspective.
