I was talking with a friend this week about the ideas of “bad luck” and karma. She’s had some pretty crappy things happen in her life recently, and she was wondering what she had done in the past to deserve what was happening with her.
It’s the age old question: why do bad things happen to good people? And how does that fit with the idea that we create our own reality? How do we reconcile fate and free will?
Let me explain my belief on this. It starts with the idea that we are souls having a human experience. As a soul, I am much bigger than my body, I have access to more knowledge than my mind, and I am connected to everyone and everything. I have a direct line to God/Goddess/All That Is. And so do you.
Each soul is here in Earth School to learn. We learn from experience, and all experience is good experience, because we learn something from it.
Before we incarnate in this life, we choose the big lessons we are going to experience. I imagine a big buffet, with all variety of human experience. “I’ll have a little of this, and a serving of that, and oh! That looks interesting… give me a big helping of that one!”
The things our souls choose from the buffet are our fate.
As I mentioned before, from the soul’s perspective, all experience is good experience. There’s no such thing as a bad adventure. Now, that doesn’t mean that from the human perspective it’s all good. In fact, quite often those choices suck from this point of view.
This is where free will comes in. We get to choose how we respond to our fate. And we get to choose what we do with every moment of our lives, including how we interact with our fate.
Now, I can hear some of you ask, why would a baby choose to die? Why would anyone choose to be abused or molested?
Remember that part about all experience being good experience to the soul? The soul is immortal, it is not harmed by this or that physical experience. It’s like an amusement park ride – part of the thrill is the frightening bits. After the body dies, the soul gets off the ride and says, “Woo hoo! What a ride! Let’s go again.”
For me, it is very empowering to know that I have chosen my life and my lessons. I know not everyone will agree with me. However, taking responsibility for my experience changes the question from “why me?” to “what is this teaching me?”
When I ask “what is this teaching me?”, I take back my power as a co-creator. I recognize my true nature as a soul having a human experience, and reconnect to Source.
Sure, I have my moments of misery. I freak out from time to time. I even ask why me once in a while. Eventually, I remember again, and come back to my truth.
What do you think? How do you balance fate and free will?
Blessings,
Mary