Sanskrit Word of the Week: Karma

Yesterday, I slipped and fell.  And at my age I don't bounce well.  Crash. Boom. Bam. Splat. Owwww.  Laid out flat at the bottom of the stairs.

After accessing the situation and determining I would live, my oldest son walked back up the stairs, singing, "Kar-ma, KARRR-maa."  My younger son showed a little more concern, "Should I call an ambulance or something?" he asked standing over me.

Earlier in the day, I had carried the clean laundry upstairs and put it away; only to find that my oldest son, when looking for a pair of socks to wear, had emptied the contents of his drawer onto his bedroom floor.  And then left for Taekwondo.  When he returned home, I calmly instructed him to not only hang up his uniform, but also to re-fold and put his socks and underwear back in the drawer.  When he finished, I checked to make sure the task was completed to my satisfaction.  After determining I could live with the results, I headed back down the stairs.  And then I fell.


My son implied my slipping was a result of the universe punishing me for wrongdoing--in this case for making him undo a mess he made.  He was wrong.  The universe was not punishing me by causing me to slip and fall.  However, the universe is punishing me for sins I committed years and years ago;  it's punishing me for disrespecting my own mother as a teenager--by providing me with my own disrespectful teenager.  In fact, it's downright LAUGHING at me.  Is it too late to apologize? 

KARMA IS A BITCH!

...Or is it?

Urban Dictionary defines Karma as:   The Buddhist belief that whatever you do comes back to you.  For example, if you do something good, something good will happen to you and vice versa.  Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com define it essentially the same way.

Later that evening, we dropped both boys off at their Taekwondo school for a "lock-in" which coincided with Valentine's Day weekend.
Ten minutes after leaving them for our date night, my oldest son called, "Mom, I ripped my pants.  Can you bring me another pair?" 
"Sorry kiddo.  No can do," I sang, "We have res-ser-vaaaa-tions."

Yep.  Karma is a bitch!