Karma and my Lucky Day

I'm a firm believer in karma.  What you give out you get back.  How you treat others is how you're going to be treated.  However you want to word it, I am a firm believer in it.  Most of the time I think about it in negative connotations.  As in, the person that got me will eventually get got.  The most obvious example I have of this is a woman I know who at one time sued someone for something that she knowingly participated in.  But the other person did break some ethical and moral rules so she had grounds....but she really didn't.  She was mad and wanted the other person to pay.  She won a good sum of money.  Several months later another person stole the money from her.  I'm not sure what happened to him, but in my book it was a clear case of karma.

What I don't think about often is the good that comes back to people.  If you put out negative and you get negative then it reasonably follows that if you put out positive, you get it right back.  It may not be today and it may not be tomorrow, but eventually, you'll get it. 

A few weeks ago we had a basketball tournament at my school.  I willingly volunteered my time that week-end to help out and I had to buy a $45 ticket to pay for the privilege to do that.  I did it with little complaining (and by a little complaining I mean less than everybody else - I did gripe about it a little bit.)  But I was there.  Two of the booths set up there had raffles.  One group was raffling off chocolate.  (Never underestimate the power of free chocolate.  Seriously) The other group was raffling off an iPad.  The chocolate was a free raffle, so it was no big deal.  I wrote my name and number down and went off to support the team I was hosting.  A little while later my husband calls me.  I won the chocolate.  Sweet!  The funny thing is..he put his name in 4 or 5 times.  And I won it with my one little ticket.  Yay me!!  But then hubby tries to steal it from me. 

High off my win of the chocolate (and the sugar, obviously) I decided that with that kind of luck I was going to buy $5 worth of raffle tickets for the iPad.  What the heck, right?  I was so sure I wasn't going to win it that I left my tickets at the house when we stopped by there before the awards banquet.  We live close by so I ran back to get them, but I almost didn't.  The time comes to draw the raffle.  My numbers were 429-434.  So if I didn't see 43 then I was probably out.  They call out 4-2 and then start back at 4 because this was a deaf basketball tournament and someone was writing it on a white board.  So they start again.  4-2-9.  Wait, what?  No way!  I won the iPad.  I became an insta-celebrity.  I give my hubby the chocolates.  One woman bought $140 worth of raffle tickets.  Seriously? 

Several people told me I should have gone straight from there to buy a lottery ticket, but I wasn't feeling it anymore.

Here's where the karma comes in.  I work my rear-end off at extra-curricular things.  Often paying for the privilege to do so.  Now, if it's something like the Christmas party or end of year softball game or something - minor stuff.  The odds of me showing up are slim.  Usually I've got a dr's appointment or a migraine or something. But the major stuff.  I'm there.  Other people, not so much.  They're there as long as they're required to be and that's it.  I don't get a lot of atta-girls from the bosses.  But last year I won 80 something dollars at our big 5 year celebration.  This year I win an iPad.  And chocolate.  Good karma. 

But now that I recognize it, I will never win anything at a school function again.  Oh well.  That's alright. 

Time

I looked at the calendar this morning and had two thoughts.

1) Where the heck did the first two months of the year go?

and

2) Spring break in two weeks.  Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But the passing of time has actually been on my mind a lot lately.  I'll be 40 in 36 days.  Wow.  Just...wow.  4 decades.  I was born during the Vietnam War.  I was a child during the bell bottom era.  (I had a pink pantsuit that I loved because it was just like Marie Osmond.  I know, right?)  I was a teenager in the 80's.  I seriously wanted Cyndi Lauper's hair.  Sorry Dad.  I was a young adult during the 90's.  Bill Clinton taught us how to use semantics in sticky situations.  Then in my 30's we got Bin Laden, 9/11 and Iraq and Afghanistan.  It'll be interesting to see what my 40's and the Teens will bring. 

Then I look at my own personal numbers.  20 years since my last open-heart surgery.  22 years since my first Al-Anon meeting.  15 1/2 years sober.  My oldest nephew is 17.  My oldest niece will be 17 on Monday.  My husband and I have been together for 10 years this coming May.  Married for 6 years this coming June.  Mom has been gone for 8 years this coming April.  My oldest granddaughter will be 6 in July. 

So what's the story with all this?  I have had the greatest joys and the deepest of sorrows. I've climbed mountains and I've dug myself out of valleys.  I've had times of comforting faith and other times of serious doubts. 

And the rest of the story is...I will have more greatest joys and deepest sorrows.  I'll climb more mountains and there will be more valleys.  I will have more times of comforting faith and more times of serious doubts.  And it will all be okay.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 - There is an appointed time for everything .  And there is a time for every event under heaven--