Karma?

I woke this morning thinking about karma, and whether or not I believe in it. I’ve always thought it was mostly just power of suggestion. If something good happens to me, I often wonder what I did to deserve it, and can sometimes even put a pin on it. This is one of those stories:

In one of my more prosperous years, I was able to take a trip to Büdingen, Germany with my boyfriend at the time, Ben, and a couple of friends of his. While there, Ben and I planned to take a train to go to Florence, Italy for a few days, while our friends visited with family in Germany

On the day we were supposed to leave for Florence, I mixed up the times we were supposed to leave and missed our first train. In a panic, we managed to get a ride on a different train that would catch us up to the train we were supposed to be on. We had sleeper cars waiting for us.

On the train we weren’t supposed to be on, there was a Russian lady who kept looking at us furtively. I’d smile and nod, waiting for her to say or ask what it was she had on her mind. Finally, she looked at me and said, “Paris?” and pointed to the train.

The train we were on was not heading for Paris, so I said no. The woman threw her hands on her head and began to wail. Our car was mostly empty, so I didn’t know what to do. A porter came running and tried to communicate with her. Someone figured out that she was speaking Russian, but we could not find anyone who could communicate with her.

I tried to console her. I sat next to her and took her itinerary. I looked at hers and compared it to mine. She was on the correct train, but she would need to transfer. Her transfer was exactly where we were due to transfer.

I patted her and showed her that our itineraries showed that we were both on the correct train. I took her hand and did my best to pantomime, “stay with me, and I’ll take care of you.” She nodded as if she understood, and she spent the rest of the ride dozing and then waking in a panic to make sure that I hadn’t abandoned her.

When we finally made it to the place where we would change trains, Ben took our bags, and I grabbed one handle of hers and she grabbed the other hand. She and I ran to her platform. When we got to it, I showed her that the destination display was flashing “Paris.” That lady kissed me on both cheeks. She threw her hands up as if talking to God, and while looking heavenward, she gestured toward me. I knew she was thanking heaven for me, and I was full of that wonderful feeling you get when you know you’ve helped someone.

Ben and I continued to Florence and had a wonderful few days there before heading back to Büdingen, and then heading home.

Here is where karma may or may not be relevant: As we waited to board our plane, I was filled with anxiety. I had done my best to keep our luggage down to bags small enough to carry on because I was terrified of being in another country with no underwear or losing all the gifts we’d picked up to bring home. I made sure that we got our boarding passes quickly so that we’d be among the first to get on, so there would be room for our luggage. And as we waited in line, my name was called over the loudspeaker.

I ran to the service desk, wondering what could be the issue, and the clerk handed me a receipt that someone had forgotten to give me. I took it, took a deep breath, and then got back in line.

Soon, we heard both of our names called to go to the service desk. I stormed over, certain that we’d now lost any hope of getting our luggage on the plane with us.

When we arrived at the counter, the clerk explained very solemnly that they’d needed our seats in coach for another couple. My heart sank. Then he smiled wide and said, “So we’re bumping you to Business class!”

Ben and I looked at each other like we’d just won the lottery, and I guess we kind of did. This was to be a 13-hour flight crammed into coach. Now we would have luxurious recliners with individual TV screens. We were served better food and drinks and even given a tiny travel bag with a sleep mask and earplugs among other things.

I thought of that Russian lady on the train and wondered if this was the 10-fold return that I remembered my mama telling me about when she would tell me Bible stories as a kid.

I don’t know. What do you think?

Snarkle

Karma is very similar to a law of physics. You get what you give. If you are kind, kindness will follow you. If you are cruel, cruelty will greet you. Karma gives us what we put out. It isn’t always swift but it is always sure.

Jodie

I think you have had some really good luck in your life because you often go out of your way to help others and maybe this is a form of karma? I am not sure if I believe in karma but I do know what you do or say can have the opposite effect of the turnout you want. I have always said “do unto others as you would want them do to you” maybe that is the same thing as Karma?

thebusinessanalyst

That’s very nice of you for helping the Russian lady make sure that she boarded the correct train. I’ve tried to do similar things for people, including helping older people who had difficulty reading the ticket machine buy their tickets to go to different destinations.

I hope that karma does exist. It’s a nice concept, and what happened to you could have been a form of karma, because you do a lot of nice things for people. However, I’ve, also, noticed that good things happen to shitty people, while bad things happen to good people… so, I don’t know ><.