IT IS ALSO KARMA

I am remembering this morning my beloved friend Gertrude. She used to talk of her deepest defect...she was an instigator.

Gertrude was a quiet, lovely, Southern lady; her husband was a big, booming mover and shaker. She would tell how, whenever she felt crossed by anybody, she would quietly "share" with her husband how hurt she was...never asking him to do anything about it, just how hurt she was. At some point, she would casually drop whose name was on her hurt, assured that her husband would demolish her nemesis. The nemesis, of course, never knew what that was all about, and Gertrude would feel vindicated without any blowback on her. An instigator with no trail.

I believe Gertrude went back to Heaven with a heavy heart because, as she said, she used her husband as her personal firepower. She pulled the trigger, and he took out the offender. She simply ran out of time before she found a way to atone to him or to those whose hearts she hurt.

There have been times when someone has come the ugly on me for no apparent reason, and I could just stand there wondering, what the huh?

I had a blinding flash of the obvious this morning in that regard, and it fills me with joy: I can trust that I shall be made whole though I never know when, where or how. Any hurt, slight, snub or snark I receive from whomever is returned to sender...unless I take it up as mine to fix. Then I own it until I atone to the sender. This is holy writ.

Thank you.