What Goes Around Comes Around

We all know the expression that karma can be a bitch.  But do we know that karma can also be a blessing?

Today I experienced good karma in its purest and most rapid form I have ever experienced.

I woke up this Monday morning, showered, and got ready to go to work.  When I went out to start my car I found that my trunk was open.  No biggie, I thought, so I just closed it and got in my seat to get on the road.  Low and behold, however, my car would not start.  It turned over and over and over, all to no avail.  I figured my battery must of died because of my trunk being open all weekend.  Since Brian does most of the driving if we go anywhere, my car usually isn't used from Friday night until Monday morning which means, for this weekend, that Kate popped my trunk Friday night and it literally stayed open (read: the little light inside the car stayed on) until Monday morning.  Yep, I would say the battery is dead.

(Note: I have typically let Kate play with our car keys.  She loves to press the buttons to hear the car beep.  She also loves to press the buttons to open the trunk, unknowingly.  Brian does not love when Kate plays with our keys because of this exact reason.  I think he gave me many more reasons why she shouldn't play with our keys but that's besides the point.  I had to swallow enough pride about this when I had to walk my butt back inside, wake Brian up from his slumber, and explain that my battery had died because I let Kate play with my keys...on Friday night...)

Most people would think of this as bad karma.  But not I!  It's Monday.  Who wants to go to work on Monday?!  This was the perfect opportunity to work from home until we (Brian was involved now) got this whole battery thing figured out.

Karma One
Karma: Let daughter play with keys because she likes it despite husband's wishes. Yay for the fun!
Karma Return: (Three days later.)  Battery on car is dead because daughter who was playing with keys against husband's wished popped wife's trunk open and since wife didn't check on this AT ALL DURING THE ENTIRE WEEKEND her battery drained.  BUT, that meant wife could work from home for a little bit and that, my friends, is awesome!  (I may let Kate play with my keys all the time if this happens!  Don't tell Brian.)

Fortunately, after a little bit of stressing and few phone calls, we determined that our insurance company covers starting up your battery if it has died.  So, I was able to work from home until the insurance guy made it out to jump start my car (which ended up taking all of 2 minutes when he got here), and Brian was able to make it into work without being late and/or causing a scene.

Once my car was running, the handy dandy insurance guy recommended that I drive around for an hour to recharge the battery.

Karma Two
Karma: Must drive around for one whole hour with no real destination in sight, wasting gas.
Karma return: (Mere seconds from that suggestion.)  That's one more hour until I really have to go to work!

Since I am very much a person that likes to be efficient, I thought of a few things that I could do while driving around and keeping my car on to recharge the battery.  These things involved stopping by Starbucks drive-thru (we had a gift card), running through an automatic car wash to get all the salt off of my car from the last snow, and taking the long way into work.

My first stop was Starbucks.  I'm not a coffee drinker, so I ordered a Green Tea (which was AMAZING for some reason) and got up to the window to pay.  Since we had a gift card and we normally don't visit Starbucks, when the cashier told me that I had $2 and chance left on the card I asked her if she could just put it towards the order of the person behind me.  Paying it forward on something so small like that made me feel so good.  It's really, really good for the soul to do good things for other people.  I left the drive-thru, car-a-charging, happy knowing that I was just saving somebody two bucks off their order.

And I headed to the car wash.  I decided to get the mid-level car wash.  It was $8.  I tried to scan my credit card and the machine wouldn't read it.  I tried again.  Still nothing.  The car wash attendant came out and scanned some magic card that he had dangling from his neck and waved me through.  He said since the machine was acting up to not worry about it.  The car wash would be on the house.  WH-WHAT?!  Yes, I just got a free car wash!  I literally felt like I had just won the lottery, folks!

Karma Three
Karma: Paid it forward at Starbucks by handing off the remainder of my gift card to the unknowing stranger in the high-end SUV behind me.
Karma Return: (The time it takes to drive from Starbucks to the car wash.)  I GOT A FREE CAR WASH that was four times the amount that I had just left the driver behind me at Starbucks!!!

I was amazed at this instant good karma!  The morning started off semi-stressful because of not knowing how my battery was going to get charged but by mid-day I was on cloud nine!  I had been able to work from home for half a day, had an amazing green tea, paid it forward to a random stranger, and then got a free car wash!  Plus, the sun was shining and while it still wasn't that warm outside, the sun was out and at that point I really couldn't have asked for any more!

The rest of the day wasn't nearly as eventful as the morning, but that didn't bother me.  The fact that I had just experienced such a superb Monday morning still amazed me.

I feel like we too often refer to karma with a negative connotation.  Karma is not a bitch.  It's a blessing, and I'm hear to tell you that the sooner you can reverse that thinking, the sooner you can reap the karma benefits.  Pay it forward.

(Side Note: I considered heavily titling this post "Karma is a Bitch" but opted out of the curse words in such a title on our family blog.  I don't think Brian would quite approve of that...wink!)