“How people treat you is your karma, how you react is yours.” (Wayne Dyer)
Many, many years ago, I got invited to a surprise 30th birthday party for a friend from a church I once belonged to. I was so excited to attend this festivity that I entirely forgot it was a surprise when the date loomed near. In my momentary memory lapse, I called the very friend who the celebration was for, asking for directions to where her party was being held. When she said that I probably didn’t mean to call her and that I might want to try someone else, I suddenly remembered it was supposed to be a surprise and quickly hung up. A few days later I nervously showed up at the event and immediately saw my church friend upon arriving. I gave her a hug and told her how sorry I was and then asked for her forgiveness. She said there was nothing to forgive, knowing it had been a simple mistake, and was only happy that I had still showed up, of which I was greatly relieved. I embraced her once more and then headed out into the backyard where most of the party was, feeling a lot better. As I poured myself a Diet Coke, I unexpectedly heard a female voice shout from behind, “Are you A.D.!!!?” (“A.D.” was the nickname I used to go by for almost two decades of my life and was what most of my friends only knew me as back then.) I then turned around to see a large woman, face very red and hands clenched, standing directly in front of me. After responding that I was indeed “A.D.”, she angrily screamed, “You have some f*$king nerve showing up here after what you did, spoiling this surprise and all! We planned this for months and months and you ruined it in under one minute!!! You really are an a$$hole you know!” By that point, everyone there was now staring at me and while my ego wanted to fight back, my spirit told me to take the higher path. I opted for the latter and humbly responded, “I know I ruined the surprise and I’m truly sorry for that. I asked for the birthday girl’s forgiveness as soon as I arrived and already received that. It’s my hope that you may forgive me too. I really am sorry…” The angry woman then huffed and puffed and couldn’t seem to manage to speak any more coherent words. She then instantly stormed off in a total frenzy, while everyone looked at me in complete surprise. Ironically, I wasn’t mad, upset, or anything of the sort, instead I actually felt sad for this woman because she hadn’t been able to get past her resentment of me. One of my friends who had been standing nearby when all this happened then abruptly asked, “How were you able to keep your cool? I would have totally gone off on that cow!!!” I responded with the only thing that was upon my heart at the time and said, “Because I know it’s what Jesus would have done…” When I left the party later that day, I felt like I had finally created some good karma for once in my life and have done my very best over the years to follow the same higher path when experiences like this happen, because they occasionally do. Ultimately, the last thing I want is to create any more bad karma, as that will only become a stumbling block to my life’s quest of drawing closer to God.
I pray that I may speak from a place of unconditional love any time I’m confronted with the opposite and I pray that I always channel the love of Christ whenever I come face to face with hate.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
