Karma

I did a good thing… 11ish months ago, and yet it made my day today.

It was June last year (I’m writing in late May.) My dad was dying and I knew it was terminal in my heart, even if I hadn’t we didn’t have the medical confirmation.

I was in the pharmacist buying something innocuous, a woman in front of me was buying medication for her father. She was clearly distressed. She was in the middle of a stressful situation. Her voice was small, her father needed that medication quite clearly and she was scared.  I could very much relate.

She couldn’t afford the medication. So I paid for it. I didn’t know her, I don’t know her name to this day but I could empathise with her. My dad was sick too. So, if there was another human being with a sick father and that man could be helped by medication, then I wanted to help. My dad couldn’t be helped, her dad could. So I helped her dad. She had to go back home to go get something and then she returned, I paid for her prescription in the interim, so she never saw me do it. She didn’t thank me for it. If I saw her in the street I wouldn’t recognise her and vice versa. I hope she still has her dad.

The pharmacist was stunned. And today, when I went to buy cotton buds I went to the same pharmacist, she remembered me, and she reminded me of my good deed. I’d forgotten about it.

I am very much of the opinion that if I am suffering then you shouldn’t suffer too. The cycle should end with me. No good in spreading misery rather than peace.

The good we do in this world dies with us, the pharmacist had no idea she was actually doing me a favour by reminding me of my kind act. I was having a horrendous morning and had just decided to quit my job. Her reminiscing with me brought me back to the present moment, and for the first time in a while, I was just a kind human being, not defined by her problems.

I can’t thank her enough for it. It made my day. On the way out of the pharmacy I saw the postman driving past and he waved at me (we greet the postman where I live) and for a moment I was a whole human being. The people who have bullied me couldn’t steal that sweet, simple, present moment from me and they never will.

That my dears, is Karma.

Grace and Courage.

Annetta Mother Smith.