A Personal Encounter with my Karma

I promised that I would share some of my special spiritual experiences from time to time here when I wrote the introduction to this blog. Here is a very special one that evokes strong emotions from me every time I think about it. This is Karma at work. Imagine the astronomical odds of this ever occurring and you will understand that this was meant to be. What an incredible lesson and gift this was and always will be! Enjoy!



After experiencing extreme trauma, having two "near-death" experiences during a six hour emergency surgery to put me back together, and one of several years of rehab, I would return to the hospital to visit the amazing nurses who cared for me during my months of acute care there. They always seemed to have at least one severely injured person who had given up the fight to live that they would ask me to talk to in hopes my example would help to motivate their patient to at least try to survive. I always gladly honored their request. There was one young man who was severely injured from a motorcycle wreck as I had been so I visited with him awhile. I never knew what to say so I just told him my story and that he had only two choices now. He could lay there in self-pity and surely die or he could choose to try to live and work like never before to rebuild his life. I ask him to please choose life and let these incredible professionals take his hand and help him through this daunting challenge. I left feeling very sad that he may just lay there and die but I had to stay focused on my chosen path to live. I managed to pull myself together well enough to continue on my lifelong path of daily challenges and moved 600 miles away to go to college. Nine years later I was having a beer in a little biker bar on a side street off of the courthouse square in this small college town when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned to see a man looking intensely at me but I had no idea who it was. He then ask me if I remembered talking to a young man several years ago in a hospital in my home town that had been severely injured in a motorcycle wreck and who had given up trying to live. My neck hair started standing on end and a wave of intense emotion started rushing from the center of my being as I heard his words. I managed to get out a yes when he said, "that was me and you saved my life".

One never knows the effect that their words and actions have on the vast majority of people they encounter during their life and few ever stop to consider the effects. I had tried to help many such patients at "my" hospital during my visits back there but I never thought for a second that my words to these strangers would mean anything. That night, though, in that tiny bar in that little town everything came full-circle and I experienced the power of my words and actions. My life has never been the same since that moment. In fact, I am reliving that incredibly emotional moment again as I tell my story here... and the feeling is wonderful beyond description!

Namaste'