Karma. Songs are written about it, religions teach it and many, many people believe in it. I do not. Karma is defined (and this is paraphrased) as an action that springs from intentions, or a result that arises from an action. Many people use karma to hope for, or believe in a result that will happen to them, or someone else as a result of something they have done, or believe. For most people karma is used as a sort of hope for a vengeful act that will happen to someone based on a perceived heinous act that has been committed. Belief in karma requires that one hopes for and expects someone to suffer for what they have done and in that suffering the one who has been wronged will somehow receive justice.

   I have been told by people that karma will eventually catch up with me. That karma will one day exact from me that pound of flesh they think they deserve because I may have done them wrong. Nothing could be farther from the truth. My actions are mine and the karmic results that people believe will happen are subject to interpretation by me and not the person observing the action. While you may think justice has been served I may have never noticed the correction of universal justice that has taken place. It may never appear on my radar and your happiness at my reversal of fortune being due to what you think I was responsible for in the past, in your karmic belief has now opened you up to the same retribution.

   I reserve that form of karmic thinking for the poisoned mind and I dismiss it outright. How I feel, and how I think is a construct I create. My perception of the events occurring in my life is shaped by my thinking and my belief system. I choose not to hope for karma to catch up to those who may have wronged me. I choose to forgive where I can and forget where forgiveness is beyond the little piece of spirituality I possess. That is all I can do. Wishing for the same sort of thing to happen to the person that has wronged me just shapes my perception to see those event in my life in that same light. If I always hope for retribution, for same sort of bad to happen, then that is all I will see. You see, to me my feelings shape how I see what is around me. If I stay in the negative, in the hate filled space of vengeance, then everything that happens to me will be viewed through that prism of thought.

  Instead of hoping for that pound of flesh, if we cannot forgive, then for the time being until we can get to that place, we must forget. Carrying the burden of hope for karma to catch up to someone even for an instant opens us up for the same thing. All we can do is to forgive those that harm, or wrong us no matter how difficult. We must hope for their happiness and applaud their successes. In so doing it keeps us free from the burden of revenge. As humans hoping for things to be balanced is almost an obsession. Forgive, and if you cannot, forget and let it go. Stay positive and move forward. Do not look back with anger, but rather with happiness. I am forgiving where I can and forgetting and letting go where I cannot. Join me as I start over, over 50.