Karma

The speaker discusses the concept of karma and how it affects our lives. He shares personal experiences and thoughts on the idea that our actions today shape our destiny tomorrow. He mentions how intention and the way we do things matter in determining the consequences of our actions. The speaker also reflects on how his actions can influence his children and their future. He gives examples of how his own choices have had consequences, both positive and negative. Overall, he believes that karma is more about building a better tomorrow through the habits and choices we make today. Hey, hey, hey, what's up everybody? Welcome back to Letters to You. You know it's your boy T.J. and you know we're getting some episodes in here. I think this is episode 8 and it's getting more and more comforting to step into the mic or to step up to the mic, shall I say, and to speak and to really kind of get ideas out in a much more effective fashion, I believe. I think the first few times were pretty uncomfortable and pretty awkward, as I guess most new things are, you know? So man, it's been a little bit since I've recorded, but today we're going to talk about karma, of all things. You know, this is known by a few other things, you know, I guess cause and effect is another way of saying it. I grew up in church and so seed time and harvest was a way to kind of describe karma, you know? And I was reading the devotional that I read, it's called Acts of Faith by Yann LeVessant and in the month of October they had one devotion which was titled, Sooner or Later It Catches Up to You and it reminded me of a video that my cousin Walter had put up on Instagram. He does this thing called the two minute tune up and he says something to the effect of what you do today, you're going to see tomorrow or what you do today, you're going to run into tomorrow, you know? So it's like almost to the effect, it kind of reminded me of like you do something to somebody and then they see you in turn in the future, you know, with the consequences of those actions. And so yeah, so I wanted to talk about karma and I wanted to give my thoughts on like what I believe karma is and how it really kind of affects our lives. I say our lives, I usually speak from experience, right? Like I speak from my own personal experiences and then just try to relay them as best as I can. But yeah, I feel like I've done so many things that have come back, not necessarily to bite me but have come back in my life in some form or fashion and they don't always seem to match up with the idea of you do good, good things come to you, you do bad, bad things come back to you, you know? I do think intention matters, I do think, you know, the way you do things matters, you know? You can have good intentions but be a little too forceful with your own actions and cause something, you know, to act adversely, you know, in turn. So what you do today usually is going to have a good or a bad consequence, like you don't really get to avoid the actions or the consequences of the actions that you have today, you know? And a lot of times we don't see that, you know? I think we're very, very momentary people, especially today's age with our smartphones and our technology, everything is so focused on the now, which is a good way to think in some cases but it's no preparation at all or no thought with the actions that you're doing now just leads to uncertainty in the future. So I'll give an example, like for me, I tend to, when I get a job, especially a job that I don't, I'm not enthusiastic about, which has been most of them, you know, I can tell you, I will tend to call out, you know, whether or not there's a personal time system in place or not, I will, you know, relieve myself of my duties, my occupational duties from time to time. And I remember when I was going through my divorce with my now ex-wife, I was going through, you know, a depressing stage, you know, which was kind of attributed to what I was doing, I would just not go to work, you know, and the immediate effect or the immediate consequence of those actions was I'd have a short paycheck and so when it came time to handle my responsibilities, my fiscal responsibilities, I had very little to nothing left over from pay period to pay period, you know. So me being not able to focus on the bigger picture or what tomorrow was going to look like if I had made a rash decision today kind of hindered a lot of experiences in my life or potential experiences. I think the actions that we're doing, the actions that we're taking, and I think whenever I do something now, I kind of think about my children, you know, in mind, like, what am I doing today that I am extending good or bad karmic energy towards them tomorrow? Not in so much as, like, what am I doing to them that will come back to me, but what am I doing around them that they are noticing that will come back to them, you know, and their families and, you know, their kids and so on and so forth. Like what actions and what words do I say, what, you know, habits do I have that they're picking up on and they're adapting in their lives, and what would that look like? Like I think we think of, like, the more obvious things, like, you know, I have a, or I've had a affinity for taking things that don't belong to me in the time that I was going through the divorce and it's kind of followed me up until a few weeks ago, to be honest, but when, I think I just needed it at the time when I was still going through, like, a period of, man, just a very low depressive state, like I was very, very sad for the lack of a better term or just being lazy with the terminology, but I just needed anything that would, that I felt like would give me life, you know, and so one of those things I was doing was shoplifting, you know, I'm not necessarily proud of it, but it did do the job, like I would be walking out of the store with something that didn't belong to me and I would just get this rush of, like, oh man, what happens if things go wrong, like, and I've never done it with my kids there, not that I can remember, but those kinds of things is what I'm talking about, like, so say Madison or Miles, you know, sees me take something, you know, they see how I do it, you know, they watch how I act and, you know, and then they adopt those things into their lives, or maybe not even, like, in a shoplifting sense, or maybe just in a sense around their relationships, you know, maybe they just are like shady or just are very untrustworthy in their actions because of what they see me do in my day-to-day life, so I think, I don't know, I think those things really matter, I think karma is more of the things that you do to build your tomorrow rather than a consequence that comes, you know, and they're, you know, they're tit-for-tat, they're very similar, you know, like the habits that you build today lead you to your destiny tomorrow, and I feel like that's the greater lesson that the idea that karma has, it really is, so man, over the last few weeks, I've endeavored to stop drinking, you know, to start reading and writing again, to do things like this, podcasting, I would say, I still don't know if this is a podcast, it's just more of like a monologue, I guess, from time to time, but those things are what shape your destiny going forward, and adversely, you know, if I were to, you know, to be strung out on drugs or to be in and out of jail, you know, my karmic value, whether it's good or bad, has been decided on a day-to-day basis, not so much a one-time event that is coming back to haunt me, so let me know what you guys think, let me know if you guys, you know, believe in karma, you know, how do you think of karma whenever the word comes up, you know, what are your thoughts, what are your feelings and emotions behind it, and what do you do, you know, to keep your quote-unquote karmic value where you want it to be, you know, so thanks for hanging out with me, and we'll see you next time.