Karma’s Gonna Getcha
I don’t like the word karma… The ways we use it — Karma’s Gonna Getcha. What goes around comes around. Karma’s a bitch. Well, maybe. But karma is all the beauty, grace, pain, and suffering in our lives.
Whether you ascribe to any of these ideas, or some combination:
We have past lives. We land here in our family of origin circumstances as a result of “karma.” All of our surprising ills are karma from lifetimes past. (If this is true, I must have been Genghis Khan. Because, ouuuchhh the suffering.)
We have come here to grow in our relationship with God, with a mission that’s uniquely ours. Our surprising ills are our preparation and usually attached to the thought that God loves those who have the “good” more than those who have the "ugly.” (If this is true — Dear God, Do you love me? And, can I get a mission briefing?)
We are randomly dropped here. It’s all cause and effect. Random. Working our asses off and turning ourselves into well-oiled machines is key to the mansion on the hill. (If this is true, well… my ass is now worked off. Where’s my mansion?)
We all grapple at some point with the absolute overwhelm of life events that are painful, unexpected, and feel like punishment (the ugly karma). What gets lost when the ugly karma shows it’s gnarly face is — all the good in our life, the help that shows up in unexpected places, the grace… This is karma too. Maybe karma is a pulse underneath all experiences until we do finally arrive at fully prepared for the “mission” or simply settle into life’s warm embrace. We get to just be here now.
I think of karma as embodied learning. This means it is alive. In our bodies. Beyond all the ways we love to believe we can control what’s happening with our thoughty thoughts. It’s part of our literal physiological programming and subtle energy at that moment. It’s training designed uniquely for you. A field test. Your capstone life course.
Karma is the way our soul is unmistakably beckoning us to better, expansion, transformation, A MIRACLE.
Leaning into the possibility that the third or thirtieth pile shit that smells the same is actually there calling you to better living is nothing short of empowerment. We can finally accept that the commonality in the piles is US. The solution is absolutely us too. I am the woman for my karma. You are absolutely equipped for your karma.
Karmic looping, which psychology calls repetition compulsion or trauma reenactment, is what’s up when we resist how bad the pile of shit stinks. We leave it there. We hide it. We insist we didn’t create that pile, they (insert any they) did it. If only (fill the blank).
But here’s the tricky part… When we’ve lived long periods of time in chaotic, traumatic, or simply unsupportive circumstances, sometimes we don’t know a pile of shit STINKS. Sometimes we believe the smell is “normal.” Maybe it is, but the mere fact that it leaves you longing, throws you off your game, or moves you outside of vitality is plenty reason to elect yourself the person to clean it up.
When we’ve been baked in these environments the activation of the karmic loop is lightning fast. The space between healthy vulnerability and cortisol induced adrenaline is razor thin. That physiological activation triggers the karmic loop long before even the best trained mind can catch up. And, we easily and understandably get lost in the loop.
There’s no wrong here. There’s no wrong in finding yourself in the same wretched situation for the umpteenth time. Every time you find yourself there — it’s a beautiful choice point. Are you going to put your pile in shit in your pocket and carry it around? Or, are you ready to be the person for the job? Because the job’s calling. You’ve been hired.