Karma

I am a firm believer in “what goes around comes around” and I generally try to be nice when it would be just as easy to be otherwise. I hold doors for people, smile at strangers on the street, that kind of thing. And for the most part I find that people reciprocate.

I seldom get downtown, it’s busy and parking can be difficult, but whenever I do find myself having to run errands at lunch, I always ask my co-worker if she has anything to go. It saves her a trip and usually only takes me a few extra minutes. Last week I was on such a mission and had paid for parking in a city lot while I dropped off some paperwork for her. The lot had the meters that you put money into depending on how much time you think you need and it spits out a slip of paper with the time limit on it that you are supposed to leave on your dashboard. I didn’t know exactly how long I’d be so I’d paid for twenty minutes when I really only needed five. Pulling out of the lot, another car passed me coming in and on an impulse I rolled down my window and waved my parking stub at the driver. He stopped and I told him that there was 15 minutes left on it, if he wanted it. He looked kind of surprised but took it and thanked me.

Today I was downtown again. I pulled into another city lot, at the tax offices this time, and just as I was scanning the lot for a space, a car pulled up beside me and the driver rolled down his window. Yup. He waved a parking stub at me and asked if I wanted it. I smiled and thanked him. This one had almost two hours left on it and I only needed a few minutes. As I was leaving I scanned the lot again and saw an older women heading towards a meter. I backed up and rolled down my window…..

As I was driving back to work, I was at an intersection waiting to pull into traffic. The oncoming car slowed right down and I thought intended to allow me in. As I started to go she suddenly sped up and almost ran into me. Okay, so it’s not a perfect world, but it’s pretty good and it’s the little things like free parking that generally put a smile on your face.