Regrets are not mandatory

Is there an age or year of your life you would re-live?

There is absolutely no part of my life I’d like to relive.

Regrets, I had a few, and some continue to linger.

But none are so heavy to make me want a do over.

Life is meant to be lived at normal speed. It cannot be rushed, nor put on hold.

Life waits for no man.

And you shouldn’t want to go back in time, if you’re old enough, like I am. Or worse, you shouldn’t want to skip steps, go into the future on fast-forward.

We are not an audio or video track. We are people.

Our lives have consequences for our dependents. Life is not a video game either. One cannot just reload a saved game and start anew using a different tactic or strategy.

Don’t let your regrets define you.

Don’t let them overpower your mindset.

Don’t allow Regret to give you the impression that you could have done better or even differently.

Don’t let might have beens stand in the way of what is.

And don’t think that you could do better because you are a changed man and you know better now.

Because you are not the centre of the universe.

If that picture, that glimpse in time the Hubble telescope took years ago of the Deep Fields or the Pillars of Creation is no longer there, what chances do you think you have to find the same people and circumstances you encountered yesterday, a decade ago, in your infancy, a moment ago?

The river of time alters all, washing all our regrets away, with no compassion for our feelings of angst at the passage of Chronos.

We would do well to remember that our regrets are not, in fact never have been, mandatory.

So, chin up and full speed ahead, and damn the torpedoes!