O-mama - Opinionated Moms

It’s a new year and another opportunity for a fresh start.  If you believe in Karma, which is the Buddhist law of moral causation, a belief that "what goes around, comes around," then how about seizing the opportunity that comes “once in a blue moon” to get some good Karma going?  

The great thing about new beginnings is that they can take whatever form you chose.   I remember hearing about the butterfly effect and what a profound impact it had on my thinking at the time.  The idea behind this principle of physics is that a small change in the condition of a system, like a butterfly flapping its wings, can cause a chain of events that can lead to a large-scale alteration of events, like a tornado half way across the world.    It’s amazing to think that something as small and delicate as a butterfly could create a giant storm half way around the globe.   The smallest things impacting the bigger issues.  What if the karma we create this year could impact the next year or the whole decade or the millennium?  Kinda blows your mind to think about.

The notion that a small thing can turn into a big one is powerful.  It’s easy to get overwhelmed at the idea of change, but the new year brings change whether we like it or not.  Time moves on.  So, we need to be mindful of what is good and hold on to it and what is bad and fix it.  Change.  Resolutions.  Karma.  Whatever you want to call it.  But, if we keep it simple and doable, maybe it’s more easily “done.”  Not everything needs to be about changing the world.  For us O-MAMAs, change begins at home, which can mean something small like changing to LED light bulbs.  Not a huge deal, but if we all did it, we'd save money and electricity.  It would affect our homes and our national agenda.  It can mean committing to buying American-made products this year.  If you have a choice between buying something made in the USA and something made in China, buy American.  Even if it costs a little more.  You could be saving your neighbor's job, which we have learned has a massive ripple effect all it's own.  It can mean following through to make the kids use their manners or turn off the TV during the week.  In the short-term it's a pain in the tushie, but the long-term effects are immeasurable.  How about eating dinner as a family around the kitchen table five times a week?  Carpooling to school or work?  Getting to know your neighbors by having a potluck dinner on Sunday night?  Or, just holding the door open for someone you don't know?  One little thing can trigger a chain of bigger events.

Karma is what you put out there.  Your attitude and your actions.  Changing the way you think about people and situations...giving people the benefit of the doubt...doing more just because it is the right thing to do.  Accepting disappointment and moving away from it, rebounding, being kind to others, practicing grace, appreciating the good even during the darkest time, laughing instead of crying, loving instead of hating, helping instead of hurting are all ways to create some good ju ju for the new year.  We will be faced with controversial topics this year, in our personal lives and as a country.  Good and bad will transpire.  But, how we deal with it is really at issue.  Can we rise above the trivial and focus on the important?  We will see people fussing and fighting and fretting and forwarding agendas on all.  Lots of flapping wings trying to create a storm.  Good and bad karma.  Can we listen to the common sense voices around us?  Can we work together to find solutions to our common issues?

Wisdom does not usually come in the loudest voice, but in the steady voice of reason.  Little butterfly wings of change can get the good or bad karma flowing in 2012.  It is a choice we all have to make.  What do you chose?