Most everyone is sort of familiar with the meaning of karma, but many people, even those that really ought to know better, have a tendency to believe that karma can only be worked out person-to-person, or through similar previous life scenarios being reenacted, that thereby allows the opportunity for those that have created karma for themselves, to correct such, by addressing it with those that they have previously failed or hurt, or to correct scenarios in which they have come up short on. While the above does make logical sense, the fact of the matter is that bad karma so generated is really about meeting those faults within your own character by personally correcting them; as opposed to having to hunt down and personally interact with this person or that person from some previous life, and thereby make amends with them, which would logistically be rather difficult, and might just be water under the bridge, anyway.
So too, life is not about endless or pointless repetition, but rather, it is about taking the opportunity to do better within the construct of the situation that a given person finds themselves in. That is to say, God is the ultimate Creator, with the ultimate imagination; of which, as the players upon this cosmic stage, it is our duty, to do our level best with the role that we are provided to play, and never will we be put into the position of playing the exact same role, twice. Therefore, the past is truly the past, and the scorecard, so to speak, does not have little chits so noted for every little trivial thing so done. Rather, karma, paints a big and detailed picture, of which it is our sacred duty to see that the painting does justice and honor to that which created our being in the first place; of which to do right by that honor, we are going to be tested in a whole lot of situations, and from those tests, the painting is so made.
So then, as much as people like to play mind games, of believing that they must have done this or that in a previous life or lives, in order to be in their present situation, good or bad; the reality is that this is no more than idle speculation, for God so knows that without a veil precluding us from knowing what we once represented in a different place, as well as a different time, and upon a different stage, that we will lose too much of our present self in the reverie of what previously so occurred. Rather, it is our duty, to plainly keep things simple, and to clearly recognize that if we only concentrated and thereby fulfilled being a good neighbor to all, and practiced therefore more patience, more love, some necessary humility, and maintained an abiding tolerance with others, that things would end up sorting themselves out, rather nicely.
The nature of karma, is in the conscious recognition that those qualities that are detrimental to good human interaction, need to be forsaken; and thereby we must take on the new cloak of being good in our actions and in our deeds in as many ways, and with as many people, for as long as we can do so; in which, by walking that path, that which has kept us burdened and has hindered our forward progress, will waste away, and we will thereby find ourselves in the presence of that Light that never wavers, and never dims.