Who Knows What May be ‘Good’ or ‘Bad’?

Back in the fall, I received an email from a woman who was so angry with me — or rather, so angry with my business — that she was going to call her lawyer and sue me. I had never met this woman and had no idea what she was talking about. I asked her to send me a screenshot of the document that led her to believe I was taking her money. She never did, so I assumed she was a scammer herself, and let it go.

A month later, I received another email. This time it was from a man who as a little less angry, and who did send me a screenshot. The picture he sent of his credit card statement listed ‘Wellbeing Solutions’, a phony 800 number that was missing one digit, and a charge for $119 (none of my services cost that amount). Realizing that he had been scammed, and with nothing on my own financial records to indicate an error on my part, I encouraged him to report this fraud to his credit card company.

Then the phone calls began. After the third in one week, I began asking people to have their credit institutions call me, in the hope that I could get some insight into who was doing this and how I might prevent it. After this approach failed, I reached out to the Federal Trade Commission and filed a fraud report (I even have my own report number: 142685409!)

Since then, I receive an average of 1–2 calls weekly from people accusing me of having erroneously charged their accounts…they have my real business name and phony 800 number to prove it. By all accounts, this should be bad for my business. It’s certainly bad for my business’s reputation, the phone calls are disruptive in the least, and there’s nothing else I can do to stop whoever is scamming all these people. Fortunately, financial institutions have become adept at identifying charges that seem inconsistent with their buyers’ typical habits. I spoke with one schoolteacher in Indiana who, when she saw the business services on my website — yoga, life and wellness coaching, retreats for stressed women — laughed about how she is far too stressed out to partake in any such thing!

I’ve lost track of how many people I’ve now spoken with. Sometimes I get to teach older folks the importance of not using a PIN number connected to their bank account when they make purchases at gas stations. One man with whom I spoke described hating scammers so much that he declared it would be his personal mission (with his banker’s help) to track down this culprit. Yet most of the time I’ve met incredibly kind people who bless me, wish me well, are sorry this is happening to me, and bid me luck in the future with my business. While inconvenienced by the false charge, they all knew they wouldn’t have to pay it.

These conversations always uplift me a bit. Even though someone out there is threatening them (and me) with malice, so many of their intended victims express kindness and caring. Ironically, not only have I benefitted from conversations with kindhearted people, Google searches for ‘Wellbeing Solutions’ have increased steadily. Algorithms that track search frequencies and adjust rankings now play in my favor.

Who knows what may be good or bad? Every situation has the potential to become a gift or an opportunity. In moments of strife, uncertainty, or even ‘meh’, these gifts are usually hidden. It often takes time and spaciousness to uncover the gems shining in dark spaces. Even if there’s no sparkle visible yet, can patience allow us the possibility of a different point of view? In which life situations might we benefit from a new perspective?

You don’t need to know how the gem may emerge for it to be there. You only need a willingness to explore its possibility.