Does karma have a deadline?

It’s a question I keep circling back to like that leftover Tupperware you keep meaning to clean out but instead just open, smell, and regret. I believe in karma. I do. Firmly. Deeply. With Bronx-born intensity. I believe what you put out there comes back to you—threefold, maybe tenfold if you’ve been especially messy.

But here’s the thing: tick tock, tick tock. The cosmic clock keeps ticking, and sometimes I find myself looking at it sideways, wondering, is karma running late or just fashionably divine?

Meanwhile, the world around us seems to be taking matters into its own hands. I scroll through streaming platforms, and what do I see? Revenge. Sweet, bitter, elaborate revenge. Entire miniseries crafted around someone getting their “just desserts” with a side of flaming poetic justice. We binge it. We root for it. We post about it like it’s the modern morality play it never asked to be.

But here’s the psychological conundrum: revenge and karma are not the same thing. Oh no. One is cosmic, slow-cooked, silent but certain (supposedly). The other? Revenge is impulsive. Messy. Often poorly lit and full of regret. It’s the fast food of justice—satisfying in the moment, but oh, your stomach later.

And let’s be real: revenge does terrible things to the soul. It doesn’t offer peace—it offers temporary distraction. There’s no peace of mind in revenge. There’s just a cycle. And if you’ve ever tried to jump into a karmic driver’s seat, you know that you usually just swerve straight into your own emotional potholes.

Still, we remain obsessed. We want karma to work on our schedule. We want tracking numbers. We want receipts. We want karma with Amazon Prime delivery. And when we don’t see it in action, we fidget. We stew. We wonder if we should do a little “nudging.” Spoiler alert: that’s how you end up starring in your own cautionary tale.

But karma? Oh, she’s on her own time. She doesn’t punch a clock. She doesn’t text back. She takes her time—sometimes years, sometimes lifetimes. And maybe that’s the point. She’s not about spectacle. She’s about balance. About alignment. About the long arc.

So yes, I believe in karma. I also believe in venting about it while watching a movie where someone gets revenge with a perfectly timed monologue and no real consequences. That’s entertainment. But real life? That requires patience.

In the meantime, I’ll keep doing the work, putting out the good, and sipping tea (herbal, not drama—well, maybe a little drama). Because even if karma doesn’t have a deadline, I like to believe she never forgets.

“Justice is patient. I’m… working on it.”