A Ramble About Weather Patterns

This idea came to me when I was working in the loading dock at Wal-Mart. When you work in the back room you run into all sorts of different people coming from different backgrounds, and having different stories to tell. A big question on a lot of their minds was why their lives seemed so bad, and other people's lives seemed so great. As I was struggling to find an answer this came into my mind. I can't say it's entirely mine, because I think some elements of it came from some of the sources I was reading at the time.

Just as there are weather patterns produced by air currents, temperatures, moisture, etc. So also there are a kind of "weatherpatterns" of Karma. Here I take Karma to mean not only the actions one takes, but also implying the consequences which result from those actions taken. On Earth there exists several different kinds of weather patterns depending on where you live in the world. In some parts of the world it happens to be sunny skies and temperate conditions most of the year, such as Southern California. In other parts of the world it happens to rain most of the year, in such places as Papua New Guinea, or the Amazon. In some places the weather is always hot and dry, in others it is nearly always wet and miserable. All of these things depend on the currents of air pressure, moisture, ocean temperatures, and how they gather and move across the surface of the Earth so that weather in such a far away place as Australia may have a direct impact on farmers in Canada whether that seems possible or not. In some places theweather patterns become so violent that hurricanes, and tornadoes form ripping through anything which stands in their way.

Every action taken by a human being has real effects and consequences not just for that human being, but also for every other human being who may or may not come into contact, direct or indirect, with the one who acted. When you have X number of actions taken by Y number of people not only alive today but also throughout history what you get is a kind of Karmic weather system of chain reactions and "currents" which impact different people in different ways. Around some people these currents coalesce into a stable, pleasant environment where everything seems to just go right for that person. Around others, it creates storm systems and even hurricanes in which the person must hold on for dear life. For some, they receive an even mix of fair and foul weather, for others it's heavily weighted in one direction or the other. Now, the first thing which must be noted is that these currents may be affected by the person's own actions, and most certainly will be, but they are not necessarily caused by that person's own actions. For example, the average Palestinian child had nothing to do with the Nazi Holocaust, but they must live with the direct consequences of that horror, which they did not perpetrate, by either living as refuges in foreign lands, or living in what to them is an occupied homeland beseiged by terrible violence because of the recreation of the State of Israel as a direct response to the Nazi Holocaust.

I think the way I think and live the way I live largely because of the different influences and interactions in my life from my parents, grandparents, teachers, world events, textbooks, friends, enemies, wife, children, and a host of other people whom I have had direct and indirect contact with over the course of my life, and of course last but under no circumstances least God Himself. Who I am is largely made up of the consequences of the actions taken and choices made by other people, including even my physical body which is the direct result of the choices my parents made as to who their sexual partner was to be. This holds true for my grandparents, great-grandparents and every ancestor I know of or don't know of. And not only this, but this holds true for not only myself but all of these people as well, save God alone. The consequences even of the actions of kings or beggars thousands of years ago still continue to swirl around us and impact who we are today.

We have the option to react one way or the other to these karmic weather patterns. And the choices we make will send new currents and chain reactions out to other people as well as ourselves. This is why it is so important to choose compassion and not selfishness. To give and not take. It is not only us who reap what we sow, but everyone else has to harvest it too.