Karma made an appearance today in a big way for me.

Most times we don’t really notice it and many times it comes so late after the fact that we don’t make the connection at first. My experience today was almost instantaneous and so out there that I had to stop baking for a few minutes in order to sit down and share it with my fellow ATS’ers.

First off, for those of you that said my Pizza/Bakery/Chinese Food Take-Out was too crazy to work and wouldn’t work...You Lose! Almost 8 Months later and still growing.

Ok, back to the Karma thing:

For the last few days there has been a Church Conference of sorts being held in the Community Center next to our store. Don't ask me what denomination or anything because I have no idea. About 100 people per day from what I’ve been told. We were actually asked to cater a part of the event so we gladly accepted. Just sweets and of course our soon-to-be-World-famous Cinnamon Buns! But that’s not the story...just had to throw it out there.

As in any group of people there are always a few Celiacs on the hunt for Gluten Free (GF) Goodies and this group is no different. Since we are only across the parking lot we have been doing a lot of business for this group and the word spread that we also have Gluten Free items. So of course the celiac crowd has to check us out. If you know of the GF diet, you also know that to find GF food while on the road away from home is a difficult and frustrating thing. And when you do find a store that offers it, it’s usually a few items, pre-packaged from large corporations, frozen and expensive. Not always but 90% of the time. And did I mention that 90% of that is also pretty disgusting?

Anyhoo...in come the GF folks and the eyes get larger and larger as they gaze at our (GF) shelves of Sunday morning, freshly baked cookies, blueberry muffins, carrot cake, sweet potato bread, pizza crusts, lemon and orange loaves etc...much of it still warm. Not new to us but so rare for the GF crowd. Needless to say, those shelves got emptied very quickly...not complaining.

But here’s the Karma part:

One lady only had a $5 bill on her and no cards. She asked me what she could buy for a breakfast snack for $5. We had nothing below $5.95. Cookies, Muffins etc. But hey, what’s 95 cents? I gave her a bag of warm blueberry muffins for the $5. She wasn’t ready to accept. “Are you sure?” she asked. And in my ever so eloquent mastery of the English language, I said “Yup!”.

She asked if I wanted her ID or a promissory I.O.U. of some sort. “Nope” I said. Just enjoy. Most of these people are from out of town anyways so I assumed I’d never hear or see from her again. No biggie.

Well, 1 hour later I see her coming out of the Community Center and heading for my store again. I figured she scrounged up the 95 cents and was coming back to settle up. Which I neither asked for nor expected. She walked up to the counter and hands me a $20 bill. I told her that it wasn’t expected and not to worry about. Consider it a gift (.95 cents) lol. And she tells me that the $20 is a tip! Excuse me?

Naturally I ask her what she’s talking about. I thought I was just going to make change for the 20 dollars if she persisted in paying. We’re a take-out and didn’t really do anything except sell her a few muffins. She said it’s a tip for being so generous earlier. Well, I’m shocked. I start to refuse the money and hand it back to her but she wouldn’t take it. I told her it wasn’t necessary...really. If I can’t do a customer a favor once in awhile, it’s not worth it. My philosophy. And she said that if she can’t repay a kindness once in awhile, it’s not worth it either. And that is HER philosophy.

She is returning to her home in a few days and will be telling her friends to stop in to get their GF goodies whenever they travel through this way.

So there you have it folks. Karma is alive and well even when we look around and see crap up to our eyeballs. I know it took a bit longer than I planned to tell the story but I just wanted to explain it as well as possible.

Best 95 cents I have ever spent!

Peace