What Goes around Comes around

Creating positive karma. Do you believe in this?

I truly believe in karma, the good and the bad. Karma – the word itself simply means ‘activity’ and these activities could be good or bad, individual or collective. I believe when you do something good or create positive actions, this will lead to positive consequences. And when you have negative intentions or create negative actions, it eventually will make space for negative consequences. “As you sow, so shall you reap,” is basically the understanding of how karma, the law of cause and effect, works.

Everything is balance. The higher a tree goes, the deeper the roots go. Therefore, I think that even with karma, everything is always in proportion. When you treat someone badly, you will eventually be treated just as badly by someone else, and when you treat someone nicely, you will receive more positivity for yourself.

I recently was reminded of this belief system and it felt like such a full circle moment.

During the winter, I was working at home in a French restaurant while awaiting my new artist visa approval. During the day, we would have amazing French pastries and croissants which would be fresh for one day only. Around 3pm, we would make the transition from a café into a restaurant, so oftentimes, my colleagues would throw all the leftover pastries into the trash. Since I’ve lived in New York City, and have experienced days where hunger became a real situation because of running low on barely to zero money, something changed inside of me. During that period, I realized truly one piece of food can change your life and honestly can truly keep you alive, which made me promise to myself to not throw food away ever again.

I’m well aware that the people who would be visiting the café were most likely not be fighting hunger, but it still made me feel better to give away all the leftover pastries and croissants to whichever customer was interested, instead of dumping them in the trashcan. On top of it, they were always full of gratitude, and instantly my offer would create a smile on their face, which meant I straight away knew I had added some positivity into their day and happiness into their stomach. This ritual became a habit of mine, to the point that even my boss made the joke, “Watch and you’ll see people walk in each day around 3pm whenever you’re working, just to receive free pastries.”

Fast forward to this past week where I was having a meeting with a girl in a coffee shop in Los Angeles who had asked me to help her out, as she had started the journey of trying to receive an artist visa too. (This process is a true nightmare.) After sitting with her for 3 hours giving all the advice I have (8 years of experience), the staff of the coffee shop eventually let us know that they were about to close and that we had to end our meeting. I quickly asked in a friendly manner if I could run inside to use the bathroom before they closed down. 

On my way out, the lady behind the desk stopped me and asked me if I wanted any pastries, as she otherwise would have to throw them out. Within that moment, those words, that question, my eyes lit up and I felt straightaway seen! I felt rewarded for investing my time and energy into a stranger to help her (if only I had a Solange for myself 8 years ago) and I felt recognized for all the times I used to give out those pastries in the French restaurant. Within that moment, I knew deep down all my positive actions were creating positive consequences and were coming back to me in perfect alignment and as a full circle on the opposite side of the planet, only this time being on the other side of the spectrum, receiving instead of giving.

When I shared this story with my LA friends, they all said, “This doesn’t happen in LA! Of course, this happened to you as this is your good karma.” Every time they said this, I knew it too and felt the same.

No, I did not give those pastries away back then in expectation that this would come back to me in the future. I simply did it because on those days, it made me feel better, plus it made me feel good knowing I could make somebody’s day.

To then receiving it back in a similar situation on a day that I truly was investing all my knowledge, time and energy into someone for free (which is worth a lot and saved her loads of time and money - I probably should start this as a business too lol), felt to me as some good old karma. No matter how little or big the activities are, for me, this was a sign from the universe, a sign that showed me that nothing is unseen, nobody is forgotten and that you will ALWAYS receive back what you give out.

Siri, please play: “What goes around comes around” by Justin Timberlake.