What Goes Around Comes Around

If you live in Woodstock you call it Karma.

But by whatever name, after living on this earth almost eighty-five years.. I know it exists.

My Mother, Lord rest her, used to say, "If you do good you get good. If you do bad you get bad." It is a simple but excellent rule to live by.

Example, last New Year's Eve I checked my voice mail at 4:00 P.M. There was a message from a man who was anxious to speak to me. When I returned his call he told me that he had a terrible problem and was wondering if I could hypnotize him over the telephone. He explained that he had serious claustrophobia. So bad that even though he was an electrician, he could not go into attics or crawl cellars. He told me that his fiance's sister had been murdered and he had to fly to Chicago the next day (New Year's). He had never been on an airplane and was petrified that, if he tried to, he would become hysterical. I suggested that he come to my office that evening. He said, "But it is New Year's Eve."

Since, at my age,if I can stay awake, I am content to just watch the ball drop, I told him it was no problem for me. He got my address and I met him at 9:00 P.M. The first thing I told him was that there was not going to be any charge for two reasons. One, he had enough on his plate with this family tragedy and also I didn't want him to think I was so hungry for a fee that I would work on a holiday. That impressed him.

We did the Hypnosis and I sent him on his way. The next day he called from Chicago to thank me and told me he had a great flight with no anxiety what so ever.

That's just part of the story.

The following Thursday, my wife was blow drying her hair and the lights went out. When she called me I told her not to worry that it was probably a circuit breaker and I would take care of it when I got home. Unfortunately, it was not as simple as I thought it would be because I could not budge the darn thing.
I remembered my friend was an electrician and called him to ask why I could not fix it. He asked where I lived, was there in an hour and presto my problem was solved. When I inquired how much I owed him, he smiled and gave me a big hug.

Moral of the story? What goes around comes around.
The problem most people have in accepting this truism is that they expect immediate results.. tit for tat. It doesn't always work that way. An old Italian woman once told me that God is not a merchant, He doesn't pay off on Fridays. We don't always see the connection.

In my work, people often are seeking revenge. Someone hurts them and they want that person punished.

"Vengeance is mine says the Lord". I tell them to leave it to God. Rest assured that justice will be served. Otherwise nothing makes sense. We burden ourselves with anger and hate and it only makes things worse. We are never free if we harbor hate and revenge.

A world wide present day expression of this philosophy is the, "Pay it Forward Movement " where we count our Blessings by passing them on to others.. What a beautiful idea!

When you think about it, it is really nothing new. Just another expression of the Golden Rule. Do unto others... comes right from God Himself.

You know, it is a wonderful world and most people are good. The problem is that the bad guys get all the publicity.
It is easy to become cynical when the media is full of man's inhumanity to man stories. I have learned to focus on the positives. Even when someone disappoints me I try to think about where this person is coming from. What are his true motives? Is he in pain? Is he trying to help me but just expressing it incorrectly? We should be slow to judge.

A successful surgeon once came to me and complained that he had a low self esteem. He blamed it on his Father, long dead, who used to tell him repeatedly, "Why can't you be like your brother? Go out for the team." His brother was a successful high school football player. The doctor told me he was a stamp collector and found it hard to forgive his Dad for making him feel not worthy. I explained to him that perhaps his Father wanted him to have the same fame and adulation as the brother but just did not know how to express it. Sometimes it is just ignorant parenting.

I say the prayer of St. Francis every day. It is good to live by:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Pray it, live it and you will be delighted by, "What comes around."

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