Sincerely Yours, Karma

Let us begin with the realization and acceptance of one core idea: "There do exist people in this world who will easily take advantage of you, and treat you as less than." Now this alone is the core idea. You can argue as to whether these people's actions are intentional, born out of ignorance, born out of pain, born out of spite or simply accidental. But the bottom line is you either have been or will meet someone who treats you in a way that nobody should be treated.

This can come up in several instances: someone can hit you with their car and drive off or leave you with false information, your superior can demean you in front of other employees, or the person you are dating could disappear without explanation or notice. These are just examples, there are of course various other ways this may and can occur. Now typically, the initial reaction is hurt and a sense of betrayal. These feelings are closely followed by qestions "how" and "why". Why would you treat me that way? How could you do that to me?

I was recently in this situation, where I could not, for the life of me, understand how someone could treat me less than. How without notice or explanation they could act as if, all the work and sacrifices made, suddenly had no meaning or relevance. I kept asking, "How is this possible? Why would someone do that?" Now most people after getting over the hurt and betrayal will get angry, and look for ways to avenge the wrong done to them. They will find out where the driver lives or works and begin harassing them or worse. They will go over their superior's head and try to cause trouble with their boss. They will do a number of things, which I am sure I do not have to mention, to the old lover.

However, that is not me. See I have far too many examples of how the Universe tends to balance things out. With every death, a new life is born. With every natural disaster the true expansive nature of human kindess is displayed by people not even remotely affected. With every senseless death, a new foundation or philanthropy effort is created to counteract and prevent it from occuring again (Special shout out to Sherri Denise Jackson Foundation for Domestic Violence in North Carolina). Due to my awareness of how the Universe works, I feel comfortable adopting a wait-and-see approach. Like my friend says "Karma will catch up to that ass." It is not my place to cause harm or sadness in your life because that will just bring it right back into mine. I just finished being sad, what I look like calling for it to happen again.

The recepient of the Universe's balancing act is often blindly unaware of why something negative is happening to them. They may not understand why they are losing their car, apartment, job, or why someone they love is cheating on them or leaves them without notice or explanation. They do not connect the dots to see that the way someone is treating them is the same way they treated someone else perhaps months, perhaps years ago. They do not connect the dots to see that the reason they may be having difficutly in their career, health or finances is because they took advantage of someone else. But it is not for me or anyone else to say "Aha! That's what you get." Because while they may not connect the dots, the lesson is still the same. They will learn to drive slower, and have their insurance info with them because now it has happened to them. They will learn to not speak down about other people in the workplace because they know how it feels. They will know that if they are not happy with someone then it is best to tell them and explain as best you can instead of leaving them in the dark because they know how it feels to be left in the dark. If they do not learn, it is sure to happen again and again until they do.

There was a line by the amazing and beautiful Emma Watson in the movie My Week With Marilyn, in which she asks the protagonist, "Did she break your heart?" When he replies "Yes", she responds "Good, I think it needed a little breaking." This is very true. Often times you do not know how not to break hearts until you have had yours broken. Sometimes you do not know how to treat others fairly unless someone has treated you unfairly. I believe that I was probably treated less than either because I have done it to someone in my past (which I doubt) or to help me learn a more important lesson in trust and humility. Or perhaps it happened to me because the Universe knew I could handle it better than someone else (a weaker person); perhaps, what I went through will serve as a catalyst for change for the individual who does not know how to treat people fairly. Either way the Universe is at work, and I trust It knows how to keep things in order.