I have always believed in karma — that my good deeds would be returned to me in the form of transparent guardian angels sitting on the shoulders of my children or perhaps in an unexpected friendship in life that comes my way or simply as rainbows in my sky after the rainy days.

But today, my karma seeds flowered in a matter of minutes and have filled my senses with their exhilarating aroma. As I stood in a queue of cars at a drive-through in Calgary, Canada, during the hours of the morning hustle, thinking of my next appointment and of the endless chores to be accomplished before the end of the day, I suddenly felt and welcomed an intuitive thought that triggered me to invite a woman in the queue to drive ahead of me. I simply welcomed the idea of executing a good deed no matter how small — to be the difference in someone else’s day.

The woman waved at me in a polite Canadian way and accepted my invitation. I then drove up, ordered a coffee and a muffin and pulled out a C$10 bill (Dh34) in preparation for payment in a fast, busy line. As I arrived at the window to pay, a Filipino employee, whose family was most likely left behind in the Philippines, said with the biggest smile on a visibly fatigued face: “Ma’am, the lady ahead of you has already paid for your order.”

I have many reasons for writing this column. It is not only to tell of an inspiring incident and to take a break from daily news that is swamped in sadness and tears, but also to pay forward this woman’s deed and ask all of us to be someone else’s good karma as she was mine — their lotus flower in a muddy world, the effect of their good cause.

Let us do what it takes to put a smile on someone’s face. In return, a smile will undoubtedly be drawn on our hearts. In his The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, Professor Randy Pausch conveyed his lessons of life to an audience in Carnegie Mellon as he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and said: “It’s a thrill to fulfil your own childhood dreams, but as you get older, you may find that enabling the dreams of others is even more fun.” Regardless of religion or culture, we have always been taught to do good deeds, to plant seeds of compassion as we plough in life’s fields, so that we can reap love and more love. Indeed, the lessons have always been preached in theory, but how often do we put them into practice, I wonder.

Setting an example for others to follow

We hear of all sorts of conspiracy theories that aim to destruct and kill. Counteractively, why not conspire against the conspiracy theories and help build and heal!

Social media can play a big part in spreading this concept at a higher speed. This is especially critical today as we are encountering a number of cyberepidemics, as is the case with the outbreak of cyberbullying, where people are deliberately harming, severely defaming, hurting and humiliating one another. The dichotomy of good and evil is nothing new to our humanity and has always been part of our mysterious world. But we must take action to counter such outbreaks of hatred and evil. Perhaps we can make better use of anecdotes and tell of our personal inspiring stories, of our materialised karmas. We can see the change we want in our world by becoming that change and by setting an example for others to follow.

One poem that comes to mind in this context is Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish’s Think of Others.

As you prepare your breakfast, think of others.

Do not forget to feed the doves.

And, as you conduct your wars, think of others.

Do not forget those who seek peace.

And, as you pay your water bill think of others,

think of those who only have clouds to drink from.

And, as you return home, to your own home, think of others

Do not forget the people in the tents.

And, as you sleep and count the planets, think of others,

for some have no room to sleep.

And, as you liberate yourself with metaphors, think of others,

of those who have lost their right to speech.

And, as you think of the distant others, think of yourself,

and say, “I wish I were a candle in their darkness.”

I thank this Canadian woman for being a candle of hope in a world that is becoming gloomier by the day, for reinvigorating the goodness in my heart today, for putting a smile on that Filipino man’s face and for helping me find my lost tears.

Ghada Al Atrash holds a Master’s degree in English.