I have a really sweet client that I’ve been seeing for about 2 years. She’s struggled with major depression and has been hospitalized for treatment for it twice. She left an abusive husband and has very little support from family and friends. She lives alone and many days does not leave the house. At our last visit, she told me that Tuesday is her ‘bad karma’ day. On Tuesdays, she fasts and spends most of the day praying. And I couldn’t help wondering, why would this woman ever have bad karma, especially as frequently as one day a week?
I think we can all relate to ‘bad karma’ days, can’t we? Her story hit a chord with me because just the day before that visit, I’d had one of those days myself.
I had woken up to another dreary, rainy day with a headache. Even though it was my day off, I struggled to get out of bed and showered. When I was ready to head out on errands, I tossed my purse into the passenger seat of the car, and the entire purse’s contents spilled to the floor. While at the mall, I bought a poppy and pinned it to my jacket. When I got home, I went to remove my jacket and tore the shirt I was wearing underneath because I had pinned the poppy through both my jacket AND the shirt.
Once I stopped stomping around and swearing, I decided I would rearrange the furniture in my room (something I’ve been contemplating for a while). I carefully removed the TV from the top of it’s cabinet and placed it on the bed. I moved the furniture as planned, then placed the TV back on its stand in the new location. While I straightened the rug below, the TV came crashing down on me, denting our relatively new wood floors and breaking the TV. So I decided to go back to bed.
Just kidding. I decided to make a tea and sit quietly instead (which is my form of prayer). While I was silent, I let the day’s events pass through my brain trying not to judge them or myself. “Isn’t that interesting” is what a good friend of mine shared when she does meditative thinking. Then I started to laugh. I mean, really, it was kind of funny how insignificant all of these ‘bad karma’ events were. My purse was easily reassembled (and I realized there was some purging required which made it lighter). The tear in my shirt is now a more permanent reminder of the significance of the poppy that caused it – there are much, much greater losses than a shirt. As for the TV, I’ve never liked having it in our bedroom anyway. And the floor…perhaps the contractor that’s doing some work for us in January can patch that up for us.
Shit happens.
The kids came home, I popped another Advil (helping subside the headache), made dinner and tucked them into bed a few hours later. As I was shutting the door to my eldest daughter’s room, she sleepily called out through the darkness;
“I love you Mama. Night night”.
And my bad karma day vanished. One statement, one thought, one decision, one gesture…changes everything.
Wishing you good karma for all of your days to come. And today being Remembrance Day, a special thank you to all of those that have served our country and fought for our freedom. May you have the best eternal karma of all.
Posted by silkspicegirl | Filed under Life & Health
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