Karma:   the force generated by a person’s actions held in Hinduism and Buddhism to perpetuate transmigration and in its ethical consequences to determine the nature of the person’s next existence.

I sit on my porch with the summer’s heat shimmering just over the tops of the houses in my neighborhood.  In the chair beside me, my friend Tami Cline from Colorado Springs smiles and tells another funny story.  She’s come to town for a wedding reception, which I attended with her last evening.  I listen to her stories, share mine, and sip coffee from my crystal mug.  Tami and I have become friends through unusual circumstances, good flowing from unpleasant.  I spent time in her home last month, and now she has come to stay with me for the weekend.  The air warms around us; I think, How fortunate I am to have made such a dear friend, such an intelligent person, so unassuming and yet so cultured.  Life brings what we need.    I might have gone from a cockroach to a Corley, but these days, I do not consider that I’m being punished for failing to learn a lesson in my last life.

It’s the twenty-sixth day of the thirtieth month of My Year Without Complaining.  I could not complain today if I wanted to do so.  Rewards have begun flowing towards me.  Hope rises in my breast.  The cobblestone path beneath my feet has smoothed.  Life continues; and continues to improve.