Karma describes the concept of getting back whatever you give, good or bad, to the universe,
Here’s the story:
One day a man saw an old lady, stranded on the side of the road, but even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help.
So he pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out.
His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her.
Even with a smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help her for the last hour or so.
Was he going to hurt her? He didn’t look safe, he looked poor and hungry.
He could see she looked frightened, standing out there in the cold.
He knew how she felt. It was those chills which only fear can put in you.
He said, “I’m here to help you, ma’am. Why don’t you wait in the car where it is warm. By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson.
Well, all she had was a flat tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough.
Bryan crawled under the car looking for a place to put the jack, skinning his knuckles a time or two.
Soon he was able to change the tire. But he had to get dirty and his hands hurt.
As he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down the window and began to thank him.
She told him she was from Dallas and was just passing through.
She couldn’t thank him enough for coming to her aid. Bryan smiled as he closed the trunk.
The lady asked how much she owed him. Any amount would have been all right with her.
She already imagined all the awful things that could have happened had he not stopped.
Bryan never thought twice about being paid. This was not a job for him.
This was helping someone in need, and God knows there were plenty, who had given him a hand in the past.
He had lived his whole life that way, and it never occurred to him to act any other way.
He told her if she really want to pay him back, the very next time she saw someone that needed help, she could give that person the assistance that they needed, and Bryan added, “And think of me.”
He waited until she started her car and took off. It had been a cold and depressing day, but he felt good as he headed for home, disappearing into the twilight.
A few miles down the road the lady saw a small café. She went in to get a bite to eat, and take the chill off before she made the last leg of her trip home. It was a dingy looking restaurant. Outside were two old gas pumps. The whole scene was unfamiliar to her.
The waitress came over and brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair.
She had a sweet smile, one that being on her feet all day couldn’t erase.
The lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but she never let the strain and aches change her attitude. The old lady wondered how someone that had so little could be so giving to a stranger. Then she remembered Bryan.
After the lady finished her meal, she paid with a hundred dollar bill. The waitress quickly went to change for her hundred dollar bill, but the lady had slipped right out the door. She was gone by the time the waitress came back.
The waitress wondered where the lady might be. Then she noticed something written on a napkin.
There were tears in her eyes as she read what the lady wrote: “You don’t owe me anything. I have been there too. Someone once helped me out, the way I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do, do not let this chain of love end with you. Under the napkin were four more $100 bills.
Well there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to serve, but the waitress made it through another day.
That night when she got home from work and climbed into bed, she was thinking about the money and what the lady had written.
How could the lady have known how much she and her husband needed it?
With the baby due next month, it was going to be hard. She knew how worried her husband was, as he lay sleeping next to her.
She gave him a soft kiss and whispered soft and low, “Everything’s going to be all right. I love you, Bryan Anderson.”
There is an old saying “What goes around comes around.”