Happiness and Sadness: Is It Karma, God’s Will Or Something Else?

Everyone has an explanation for why things are the way things are. Sometimes we say it’s, “God’s Will”, or, “it’s bad or good karma,” or, “the way the cosmos works,” or, “it’s down to good or bad luck.”

Fail and we’ll blame a mystical force. And then we’ll ask the same unseen power to bless us with success. Almost every culture from every period of history has done it. It’s in our DNA to blame and thank something we can’t see. We want to believe in something, anything.

Are you a God’s Will type of guy or a Karma kinda chick? Have you got your take on it? There isn’t a right or wrong answer. I promise you your reply won’t ruin your future — because your faith is your faith. You already believe what you believe for the reasons you believe it. The only thing that matters is the truth. Karma, luck, one God, several gods — if it’s true to you, it’s true for you. Tell me your faith and your kind of truth.

“Why didn’t I take a left at the fork in the road?”

“Why did I get second place instead of first?”

“How come I married the wrong person?”

Finding answers to existential questions like these is typically human. And then there’s the second half of the equation to consider.

“Thank you for my education and the successes in my life.”

“Thank you for the health of my family and friends.”

“Thank you for giving me the ability to learn, work hard and raise wholesome children.”

Giving thanks seems like a natural thing to do too.

Some of us spend good amounts of energy cursing the negative elements in our life, while others hammer the positive ones with praise and affirmations. We blame it for the bad stuff, thank it for the good stuff, and are certain that it can be influenced by our prayers, actions or thoughts. If we do right by it, it will do right by us and we’ll find peace and happiness.

In nineteen eighty-five I met a young lady who stated she was an atheist. She didn’t believe in God, instead, she chose to put her faith in karma. She said that all good things will come to those who make a plan, work hard and do the right thing by others. The right thing wasn’t well defined but the general idea was to be nice to people. I met her again in two thousand and one. Her outlook on karma had become highly skewed, so much so that she was adamant that she was entitled to an abundance of good karma. She had worked hard, suffered greatly and believed she was due her share of good fortune. Her husband had run off with a younger person. She had to start over again. It left her alone, angry, and afraid.

Okay, you got me. We were once lovers — on and off again affair partners. Are you happy you got that out of me? That’s how I know about her and her sad past, can we move on?

Instead, let’s look at this opportunity to live and learn. I got to witness twenty years of change take place in someone who lived by the law of karma — and I saw it fail her. I watched karma being abused, misused and manipulated to fit a purpose-built narrative that suited her the most and her enemies the least. In reality, I only heard her version of the events that took place in her life.

Perhaps karma didn’t fail at all. It succeeded. All the misfortune she received, may have been the result of the misfortune she brought upon others. If I’m to support her belief in karma, it’s the only conclusion that makes sense. She hadn’t stuck to a plan, didn’t work hard, or wasn’t nice to people along the way. I wouldn’t need to know anything more about it because karma sorted her out.

But I was still curious. I wanted to know how everything fitted together. Karma may have given me all I needed to know but I still had questions about the details behind it. My part-time lover did manage to open a tiny window for me and I’d like to share what I saw through it with you. It’s about that young lady who she claimed had stolen her husband — their child’s nanny. You see, she went and told me something she failed to mention earlier. The couple employed a nanny soon after their baby was born because a certain someone didn’t want to change her daughter’s soiled clothes. She wanted someone else to do it.

A-ha! That’s an important detail, right?

Yes, well, you’re right. It goes to the kind of character she is and it shifts the perspective of the story somewhat. It did so for me. I started questioning everything I’d been told — the karma, her good deeds, a cheating husband and what she thought she was entitled to get from him because of her ongoing struggle, the one he caused her.

What kind of mother gives their child over to a stranger to wipe its bottom? What kind of woman becomes a mother who takes only the good stuff from her baby but hands it back as soon as things turn bad or ugly? A lazy, ungrateful, selfish woman — who just happens to believe in karma, that’s who.

What goes around comes around. That’s karma’s mantra, right?

I can’t say if her husband was stolen from her or if he decided to run away. There’s even a possibility he was pushed out, not pulled away. If she only wanted the good things and hated the bad things, that may have included him too. For this unnamed guy, it could’ve been a narrow, one-dimensional life with her. She could’ve been a handful. He got to see more than I did. I was just an ex-boyfriend from a time long ago.

There is more about our part-time twenty-year affair, written into my novel. If you enjoy stories about karma, passion and romance, you’re going to love it. It’s going to blow your socks off when you find out that a crucial part of the story I left out of this post is discoverable inside the book. You won’t believe it when you read it but let me say, when you do, it was real, every part of it. It happened just the way it did in real life! Yes. Indeed it did. Bookmark this page, read the book and look for the bit about karma and the window that faces the mountain. Re-read this post after you’re done and see if it makes better sense.

Leave me a note at the bottom of this page. Tell me if you believe in karma, God’s will, or something else. Let me know your thoughts about what you found inside SEETHINGS.

Originally published at https://michaelformanwriting.com on April 9, 2022.