It’s all Karma!

We left the house for our trip July 4th morning around 5 am and until 10 pm July 11th I would say my life was driven just by my karma.

We came back from our trip July 9th, yet things get moving here in Pittsburgh. When I planned the trip, I knew there was a race I had signed up for my special man on July 11th evening. I signed up since it was just a mile, but I completely forgot about it. Remember, we have 5 races to run/walk for free this year thanks to Special Olympics and this was our third race. He has been getting gifts for all the races he finishes, but checking off the fifth one would mean he would get a hoodie. So, this is another bucket list I have been working through the year, but with an airplane trip planned I completely forgot about it.

When I received an email Tuesday, I noticed that the race was much more complicated than it looked. Pittsburgh’s famous Picklesburgh is this weekend and there was a concert to go along with the race. Do you know what that meant to traffic, parking and crowds? It is a huge mess. We decided to get the race bib early at a mall very far from our house. This in itself was hard with a trip we had finished, “you do not go to a mall”. The debate started at home as to how to reach the place of the race. Driving or taking the light rail. Where to park? Was it near the start line or the finish line? How was the weather going to be? Was it going to be hot or nice or a thunderstorm.

Around 2 pm Friday afternoon I decided nothing was in my hands. I told my husband we just drive to downtown and take it as it comes. As we parked our car, we noticed all the crowd spilling out of Picklesburgh. We saw it was in the 85 degrees hot. We needed a mile to walk to the start line. They had multiple heats and my younger son who also participated had his heat nearly an hour after my special one’s heat. We had to make decision who needed to walk with my special man. My husband entered the corral with my special young man. I even told them; I am not going to bother about anything just asked my husband to get the race done. I was on the sidelines along with my younger one and the race started. Every quarter mile, my husband could see his timing, which really motivated him to drag my special man towards the next quarter mile, and they finished off the mile in 19 minutes which is of course one of his best timings given the temperature was hot. Meanwhile I had to slow down since I had to prep my younger son for his race (yup I have another typical kid whom I need to help), and I joined my husband at the finish line to see my younger one too cross the finish line.

At the end, we all walked to the after party for a Kona Ice and that seven-dollar ice was something worth every single penny! Me and my husband took a selfie next to the huge pickle hanging on the bridge and smiled at ourselves saying it was our karma that we are here at Picklesburgh!

I really did not plan for such a hectic week. As I kept adding stuff, I kept saying to myself nothing is written in stone and things can change, and I am not going to feel bad about it. But the surprise part. everything went smoothly and nothing got missed. It really made things clear for me. If something is going to happen, it is going to happen whatever the odds are. If something is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN, whatever we try it is not going to happen. Maybe that is what we in Hinduism call Karma. Again, do your duty and do not expect any results is what Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita. Maybe I did that, and things turned out as it was supposed to.

If you did not catch up on my National Park visit blog here it is.