Something Bad Equals Good Karma

Did you ever notice that we have to have something bad happen in our lives before we give credit to good karma?
I realized that myself after I wrote a blog post in August about having good karma. My car key had broken, and the planets aligned to allow me to get the key replaced and get to work on time. What good luck, I thought. I didn't even consider what bad luck that my key broke.
Later that same day, I had another incident of what I considered good karma.
But it was as I was lying on my back on the ground, that I realized: yes, I was very lucky not to have broken my head open, but I was kind of unlucky to be lying on the ground in the first place.
Grace and I decided to try roller blading.
I used to be pretty skilled at roller blading. When Grace and Spencer were little, before Tucker was even born, I'd swoop up and down the streets of our Michigan town while pushing a double stroller with the kids in it. I had promised my husband that if he bought me a double stroller, I'd have the best ass in the neighborhood because I would use it to roller blade everywhere. I probably got close to that goal.
I continued roller blading as our kids grew and as we moved to Columbus, Ohio. Then, about 12 years ago, I was skating around the block with Tucker and Spencer. Grace was probably curled up at home with a book. My husband had traveled to Florida for a work conference. I lost control of my roller blades and hit the curb head on. I heard a pop from my knee and I lay in the grass knowing something was truly wrong with my knee.
The boys, ages 6 and 8, skated over and looked down at me in fear. I could see tears in Spencer's eyes as he felt my pain and wondered how to help.
"Just give me a minute," I told the boys.
Dad was gone so he couldn't come get me. The boys suggested they'd skate home and get the wagon. Then they could pull the wagon with me in it.
The idea of standing up was excruciating. Lowering myself into then climbing out of a wagon seemed beyond my capabilities.
After a few minutes, I had the boys help me stand. I kept my left knee, the injured one, bent and tried to put all my weight on the right one. The boys both held my hands and pulled me slowly along until we reached home.
I found out later that weekend that I had torn my ACL -- a ligament in my knee. A few months later surgery and physical therapy helped make it as a good as new, but I never went back to regular roller blading.
So on that August day that started with a broken car key, I convinced Grace that we should do some roller blading, but I couldn't find my roller blades. I searched through the box with probably six pairs of roller blades. Mine weren't there.
I put on another pair that the kids had worn at some point during their growing up period. They all have bigger feet than I do now. The roller blades fit, but they didn't roll very well.
Grace and I went around the block and it was a lot of work. I decided to try another pair. Oh my gosh, the second I put them on I was rolling out of control. There didn't seem to be a way to stop myself, which is why I ended up falling on the sidewalk near the garage door.
"Whoomp!"
I feel backward, which is lucky for a woman who broke her nose falling forward two years ago.
I landed hard on my butt and the palm of one hand before I fell the rest of the way onto my back.
I just lay there on the ground, assessing any injuries I might have incurred. Everything seemed okay. I'd be bruised, but nothing broken.
I was wearing overall shorts and my phone was in the pocket on the front. When I fell back, the phone tumbled onto my chest. That's when I thought, my running friends would probably appreciate a picture of me lying on my back from my latest fall.
I held the phone up and snapped a picture.
Then I looked at the picture.

I was shocked to discover that the top of my head was only an inch away from the wooden box garden that held our strawberries. If I'd fallen just a second sooner, my head would have hit that wooden wall and my injuries might have been much more serious.
Good karma, I thought immediately. But wait a minute, would I even have thought of my good karma if I hadn't had the bad karma to fall.
I haven't been roller blading lately, but that doesn't mean I'm giving up. I might need some new ones for Christmas, and next time, I'm definitely wearing a helmet. I can't count on good karma for everything.

Good Karma

By 10 this morning, I was ready to go back to bed, and this was supposed to be my day off.
Last night around 10, another teacher texted and asked if I'd substitute for his 8 a.m. class. I had no real reason not to sub, so I said yes. That meant I set my alarm for 5:30 so I could go to the gym to work out before class.
But when I got out to the car and tried to turn the key, the plastic fob that holds the key had cracked. It wouldn't turn all the way. I played with it for a few minutes trying to figure out how to turn it off or on. I got it out and went back in the house. I found some tape and wound it around the plastic. It wasn't strong enough to turn the key either.
So I grabbed the keys to the other car, knowing I'd be back in time for Spencer to drive to work at 8 too. I planned to stopped at the hardware store on my way home from the gym to have another key made.
As I raced into the parking lot at 7:20 a.m., the store was dark. I walked to the doors any way, hoping to see the store hours. The doors were locked. I walked away dejected and texted my neighbor to see if I could borrow her car. Then I heard a knocking on the window of the hardware store. The woman inside motioned me back to the door.
They didn't open until 8, but she could probably help me, she said. I showed her my broken key.
"Oh, no. The guy who does those kinds of keys doesn't come in til noon," she said.
The key has a computer chip or something, which makes it extra expensive and hard to duplicate.
"Okay," I turned back toward the door.
"Here he comes now," the woman said.
And at 7:30 in the morning, the man who wasn't supposed to work until noon came in the hardware store that didn't open until 8 and was able to make me a new key.
"Let's go try it on your car," he said.
But when I explained that I had to drive a different car, he said, "Take it home and see if it works. If it does, come back later and pay."
And that's what I did.
I ran into the house at 7:40 a.m., threw on some eyeliner, showed Spencer how to work the coffee maker and made it to campus by 8 a.m.
I paid for the $60 key on the way home, proud that I had solved my car issues without waking my husband and forcing him to take care of it.
It might have been bad luck that the car key broke, but I must have good karma because all the planets aligned to let me fix the problem.