What goes around....

Hey everyone, I am writing today on one the many lessons of Karma. I am a recovering addict and have spent a lot of time asking myself and God the question of WHY? I often ask why things are happening to me now that I am living right and doing the right things. Most of you or maybe just some of you may think that I and others like myself deserve whatever comes my way. I say this because some people do not view addiction as a disease and feel that no one should be pardoned for their past crimes. I tend to agree to a degree, but being that I have lived on both sides of the tracks ( Sobriety and Active Addiction) I also feel that people do deserve a second chance to some extent. Yes there are some things that cannot be forgiven no matter what frame of mind the person was in when they did whatever they did, but for the most part everyone does things they are ashamed of and drugs are not always in the picture either. Now back to my original query. WHY? there are many answers I could give myself. One of them being: Why not Me? Another being: It could be worse, and the best one: Did you really think you were going to get away with all of that stuff and not have any repercussions? Honestly thoguh folks, my crimes were mostly of an emotional nature and Karma to me is a reciprocation of what you put out into the world, good or bad. I don't see Karma as this big evil God that sits and laughs at us mere mortals while deciding what horrible fates to bestowe upon us. I see Karma as a natural and beautiful law that mirrors back to us what we present. Now I know there are skeptics among you that may say " what about all of the good things I have done, and haven't gotten any of it back". While this may seem true, the real question is: did you do all of those good things from your heart or did you just do them to get something back. You see another beautiful thing about Karma is that you cant lie to it. Whatever is in your heart during the time of action is what you truly get back. So if you give to charity but complain about it for the whole week, then most likely you will get your just reward of lack or insecurity or whatever is in your heart when you commit these false deeds. If you steal from the grocery store because you are hungry, yes you most likely will go to jail but you will get fed in the process. If you truly do a good deed from the heart, then you will get a beautiful blessing in return that is meant just for you and you will know it is for you when it shows up. Now once again back to me and the WHY'S? I am telling you all this as well as myself, and here is the beauty of it. It doesn't matter why, what matters is what you learn from it. So when my feelings got hurt last week from a good friend lying to me about something I knew was a lie, I realized that all of the times I lied to people who knew I was lying that they most likely felt like I did just then. I saw that I don't want to ever feel like that again and I will do my best to keep from ever hurting someone else the way I have in the past. When I got mugged a few weeks ago at the light rail and I wondered how this could happen to me, I never mugged someone. I see now that I am lucky to be alive, and as wrong as it was that maybe just maybe he needed the money more than I did. I also see that even if never physically mugged someone that I did keep a lot of people up all night worrying just like my mugger kept me up all night worrying. No matter what, I learned that sometimes you have to take the wrong road and hit a few bumps and potholes in order to see the right path ahead of you and to be able to enjoy your destination all the more when you get there. I also learned that I can see the part I played in every single thing that has or will happen to me . Past, present or future, I had a role in everything pertaining to me somewhere along the line. With that I am going to say thank you to the great law of Karma, because without it I wouldn't know how I feel about several things and I certainly wouldn't know how I have made others feel.