What Goes Around...

Karma is a fun thing to say. “That’s karma for you!” we say when someone who experiences what appears to be punishment for past crimes. “Isn’t my karma any good?” we say to ourselves when bad things happen and we think we’ve been mostly good people. We want there to be some sort of divine justice in our world. We want it to make sense.

The fact is, like many made-up religious things, karma is make believe. It makes us feel better to think when someone hurt us, they’ll get some sort of punishment from the universe at a later date. The problem with this is: it’s not always true.

Plenty of people do plenty of bad, hurtful things - and get away with it. It might even look like they are extra-blessed after their misconduct. And we also need to remember that even if they do go through something bad in their life further down the road, it doesn’t really fix what that person did to you.

Instead of believing the very fallible “what goes around, comes around” philosophy, we need to learn to practice something that is so easy to say, and so hard to do: let go.

It is so hard to let go. I get it. I am in the midst of trying to let go of a few painful things myself. It would help if I knew those who hurt me were hurting a little too. I admit I’d probably feel some satisfaction. But the thing is: those people are not in my life anymore (either by their decision, or mine). The only thing left for me to do is to let go.

Would it really take away the pain of being rejected and abandoned by him if I knew some other woman did the same thing to him? Would it really ease the sting of loneliness if I knew her new best friend dumped her, too? I suspect not as much as I think it might.

So instead of perpetuating the myth of karma, I am advising others - and myself! - to just…


Let.

It.

Go.

Breathe through the pain, remember to smile with gratitude at the good times, and when hurt lingers longer than it should: let it go.