I sometimes hear people complain that they’ve been kind and generous to others, yet their own lives are still difficult.
But what if things would have been much worse without the good they’ve done?
Maybe the illness would have been more serious. The misfortune more painful. The loss greater. Or perhaps something terrible never happened at all.
We see what happens to us. We rarely see what we might have been spared.
I believe in karma, in the Buddhist understanding of cause and effect. I believe our actions plant seeds, but we don’t get to decide when they bear fruit.
A seed doesn’t become a tree overnight. Its growth depends on time, weather, nourishment, and countless conditions beyond our control. Some fruits ripen sooner, others later. Some seeds take years to bear fruit.
So why do we expect kindness to reward us within twenty-four hours?
Perhaps today’s misfortune comes from seeds planted long ago. Perhaps today’s blessings are the fruits of good deeds we barely remember.
We cannot always control when our karma ripens, but we can choose what we plant.
To me, good karma is a kind of invisible insurance. I don’t know what it protects me from, how much suffering it might soften, or what blessings it might bring. I only know that I don’t want to stop planting good seeds simply because I cannot see the harvest.
And the opportunity to do good is itself a blessing.
Today, I may have money to share, time to volunteer, or the health to help someone in need. Tomorrow, I might have neither the means nor the strength. Someone who needs comfort today might not be there tomorrow. An opportunity to help may never come again.
Being able to do good is a privilege, not an obligation to postpone until later.
So I want to do what good I can, while I can, without keeping score or demanding an immediate reward.
Maybe the return will come tomorrow. Maybe years from now. Maybe it will arrive in a form I never recognize.
I don’t need to know.
I just want to keep planting good seeds, trusting that no sincere act of goodness is wasted.
We may never know what our blessings have saved us from. But we can make sure that, while we have the chance, we keep creating them.
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