A Karmic Moment

On Valentine’s Day, my family and I made a stop by the grocery store to pick up a few items. On the way out of the store, my youngest daughter, 7, saw a man who was leaving the store drop lottery tickets he had just purchased. My daughter picked them up and brought them to me pointing out the man who had dropped the tickets. She was very concerned.

I walked out of the store and called for the man, who turned around and seemed very grateful to have recovered his tickets. I told him my daughter had picked them up for him. He thanked her. As he turned away, I noticed he was also carrying flowers and a bottle of wine. Who knows how the lottery tickets fit into the picture, but I felt happy knowing my daughter had saved the day for him, at least on some level.

As we walked in the opposite direction to our car, my wife and I had a brief conversation about karma. I remember thinking that if such a thing exists, then my youngest would have a lot of good things coming her way, but I also said out loud, “I’m not so sure about this karma thing.”

Moments later, as we were piling into the car, the same man pulled up behind us and honked his horn to get my attention. When I turned around, he reached out to hand me some money with a big smile on his face. I said, “Please, it’s not necessary.” He insisted, though, and said simply, “I love kids, and yours helped me out today.” I accepted the money. Once in the car, my wife and I just laughed. Maybe karma was sending us a nice little reminder. The girls decided they would put the money toward rollerblades they want to buy.

I hope they learned a lesson, too: a simple one we try to teach kids every day by our words and actions. Kindness matters. I think they already knew that. Thanks karma for the simple reminder.