oh good. i really didn't.

i guess i see life as being fairly complex so there are many factors and reasons why something could go wrong. i agree that sometimes we do bring things on ourselves by our actions, but in many cases i think we either just won't know why things happen or things happen just because someone freely chose to do something unkind.

i do agree with you here.

that could very well be the case. for me if i start to see a pattern then i tend to wonder what is up. i don't know if there is a pattern actually happening with the series of situations with your daughters, but it might be a good idea to see if things die down or if weird things like this keep happening.

when i mentioned it might be something spiritual i didn't have anything specific in mind or was even wondering as i just thought it'd be good to pray for protection for all of you. i figured if there is something that needs to be addressed God will bring it to light. i don't usually worry about the why so much as what is currently happening. i know there are some similarities between the ideas of sowing and reaping and karma but i would never assume something bad is happening because someone did something to bring it on themself. honestly, i'm not sure how a curse and karma would differ. they sound similar to me except for issues of past or future lives. i also think bad things can happen just because a negative spiritual being/force/whatever has your number for no fault of your own. sometimes it's because you're doing too many right things and they want to mess you up. in my faith we pray against things like that if it seems to be the case.

the issue of curses is definitely not one i know a whole lot about but in my faith they can be cancelled. i did have a very strange incident with a former neighbor who i was friends with. it's kind of a funny story so i'll share it but please know i am in no way implying this applies to your situation. we lived right across from each other at the top of a stairwell. we both got the daily newspaper and whenever he tried to make arrangements for his paper to be stopped when he was out of town it would get messed up and they'd either keep delivering the paper or he'd get extra papers, etc. the thing was i never had any problem whenever i went out of town and made arrangements for my paper to be stopped or transfered. the situation had gotten so bad that when he went away for several weeks and asked his paper to be stopped and discarded they ended up delivering those several weeks papers all at once when he returned. he said the pile was thigh high! it really had gotten comical and most of the time he was using an automated system thru the web or phone so it's not like someone was trying to mess with him. i used the same system and it was flawless for me.

i had a funny feeling something spiritual was happening because there was no reason why we'd be doing the same thing and having totally different results consistently. i never said anything though because i wasn't sure what exactly was going on. at one point i attended a conference at a church on healing. this one lady spoke and she talked about something she called bitter root judgments. she said that when we harshly judge someone for something they've done to us then somehow this can cause us problems in the future. in my faith issues of bitterness and withholding forgiveness are biggies and known to cause problems. when she explained the concept i just knew that was what was going on with my neighbor as he had very harshly chewed out a customer service lady on the phone about his poor delivery shortly after it started happening. this is a large national paper in a major city so it's not like this lady would have told the delivery guy to start messing with his delivery. they probably wouldn't even know each other in such a large company and working differing schedules. that would just be too farfetched as far as i'm concerned.

so, i told my neighbor about what i had learned at this conference and told him to try confessing to God his harsh judgment and treatment of this woman and then ask God for forgiveness. he wasn't willing to ask God for forgiveness (he doesn't even believe in God) but he did confess that he'd been harsh and judged this woman on the phone. well, next time he went away his paper delivery went totally smoothly. and it continued that way for some time until he had another altercation with the customer service (i'm not sure about what) and harshly judged them and then the problems started up again. i'm sure some people with think this was all random and had nothing to do with his delivery problem and that's fine too. i'm just sharing what i believe but i do realize it sounds pretty out there.

actually, i've had something happen in my own life repeatedly and always wondered why when i know i haven't done anything to cause it and it seemed so unexplainable but kept happening over the years. when i was thinking about all this earlier today i realized i did in fact bitterly judge the people from the very first time it occurred and now i'm wondering if that is what has made it repeat in my life. it's been something i've had happen with friends and it has caused me a lot of pain so i'm definitely going to deal with my bitter judgment from many years ago and see if this thing happens again.