Karma is an eastern concept. I'll try to boil it down to a comment-sized discussion. Western/Judeo-Christian thinkers have borrowed it and mangled it. Karma is mostly about intent. Western thinkers equate it with their beliefs that with respect to both good and bad deeds, what goes around comes around and the good will be rewarded in this life and the bad will be punished. Karma has very little to do with rewards (or serendipity) and punishments. Karma presents us with situations and people from which to learn. Karmic debts that are cleared in a present life most likely were incurred in a prior incarnation.
The best article I have read that fully understands and explains karma is https://medium.com/illumination/the-real-meaning-of-the-law-of-karma-will-blow-your-mind-f07fe413ebce .
Someone once explained karma to me like a bank account with good karma being deposits, which we can withdraw and spend, and bad karma being deductions. It does not necessarily mean that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people, as experience shows that is more uncommon than otherwise.
In May 2021 I ran into a car on my bicycle. It was completely my fault. Somehow I managed not to injure her car or my bicycle, mostly because I managed to absorb the impact into one finger, dislocating it. With the adrenaline of the moment, I felt no pain and just happened to see it as I got up off the asphalt. The driver was so shaken. I took her hand in my non-injured and assured her I was unharmed. My spirit guides informed me I earned a lot of good karma that day and they might have said something about clearing a karmic debt too.
Ann Litts mostly gets it in this 3-minute piece https://medium.com/illumination/the-real-meaning-of-the-law-of-karma-will-blow-your-mind-f07fe413ebce .
Tara Desai wrote well about it here in a comment to one of your essays.https://dtar-27237.medium.com/the-concept-of-karma-is-embedded-in-the-life-of-hindus-from-ancient-time-in-india-4360675afd1f Trust a Hindu to describe karma.
My views on karma might be a little different than the Hindu teachings and probably different from the Buddhist teachings too as my views come from my discussions (through a channeler) with my spirit guides and not from any religious or philosophical text. A good source on Medium for the Buddhist views of karma is Sandra Pawula. Here is one: https://medium.com/indian-thoughts/how-karma-works-2854be8023ac
