Some consequences are simply delayed explanations.

Consequences often feel like punishment when they are really information arriving late. The debt, the strained friendship, the body that finally objects: none of these appeared out of nowhere. They are the delayed reply to messages you sent months or years ago, and the delay is what makes the connection hard to see.

When something unpleasant lands, resist the first instinct to ask why this is happening to you. Ask instead what it might be explaining. Trace it back and look for the pattern that fed it. Not to assign blame, but because a consequence you can read becomes a correction you can make, and one you cannot read simply repeats.