After doing some grocery shopping, Kristy was walking out of our local supermarket. As she stepped into the parking lot, she noticed a fellow shopper making a BIG mistake. This woman, after loading her groceries into the backseat of her car, was busy driving away — without realizing she’d left a birthday cake sitting on the roof of her car! She was seconds away from splattering the cake all over the pavement.
“Excuse me!” Kristy shouted, as she ran toward the car. “Wait! Stop!”
The woman reluctantly braked her vehicle to a halt, and rolled down the driver’s window.
“I’m sorry?” she said. “What do you want?”
“There’s a birthday cake on top of your car,” Kristy replied.
Realization washed over the woman’s face. “Oh my goodness!” she exclaimed. “I am really ‘out of it’ today.”
The woman quickly exited the car and tucked the birthday cake safely inside. After thanking Kristy profusely, she drove away.
The next day, Kristy and I were again wandering around town in our trusty diesel truck SEEMORE, running errands and doing a little shopping. Note that I’ve been observing a few stringent new resolutions with regard to food and drink consumption. Not only have I been abstaining from adult beverages (‘tis a cruel sacrifice to forego pale ale) but I’ve also been following a low fat, low sodium meal plan. I’m giving my body thirty days to detox, before resuming the regular abuse next month.
But this was Saturday night, and rebellion was in the air. I turned to my wife: “Want a Blizzard?” I asked.
Blizzards, of course, are the wonderfully decadent ice cream treats at Dairy Queen. They have absolutely no place in any sensible diet plan, but they certainly are tasty.
“Sure,” she laughed. And then for no apparent reason, she added, “But what I’d really like is a slice of birthday cake.”
I laughed. Kristy loves birthday cake. But of course, there was no chance whatsoever that we were going to buy an entire birthday cake just to satisfy our sweet tooth. So we proceeded to Dairy Queen in order to wreck our respective diets with Blizzards.
Ten minutes later we were at the drive-thru window, collecting our frozen treats. As I began to drive away, a Dairy Queen employee appeared in the window and said something to me. But we had a hard time discerning exactly what this woman was saying over the relentless clatter of our truck’s diesel engine.
“Dooyoo won a flubtake?!” she said.
“What?” was my reply.
“DO YOU won a flubtake?” she said.
“What?” I replied again, straining to hear the woman over the metallic cacophony emanating from SEEMORE’s engine.
“DO YOU WANT a FLUBTAKE?”
This time I finally gave up. I turned off our truck’s engine, and silence was restored.
The woman smiled and said, “DO YOU WANT a FREE CAKE?”
I was taken aback. “Sure,” I replied, “We’ll take a free cake.”
Who says no to a free cake?
In a moment, the woman reappeared at the window holding a HUGE birthday cake. It was one of those big frozen Dairy Queen ice cream cakes that costs about $30.
We decided to camp atop the cake, and ponder its karmic implications.
“Here you go,” she said as she handed the massive cake out the window. “Enjoy.”
I was flabbergasted.
“Thanks,” I replied. “What’s the occasion?”
She explained that this was a surplus holiday cake, likely created for New Year’s Eve. Since the holidays had come and gone, they were giving away the cake.
As we drove home that evening, my wife and I laughed over the karmic implications of the birthday cake. Think about it. One day Kristy helped save someone else’s birthday cake. The next day she made the offhand remark that she’d enjoy a slice of birthday cake. Ten minutes later, someone gave us a nice birthday cake!
Put positive energy into the world, and it will return to you.
It was a vibrant illustration of an old principle.
If you put positive energy into the world, you get positive energy back.
With icing on top.