Regret

You will wonder if you did the right thing.

There is no escaping it.

You will wonder. You must. Reflecting and thinking are good and useful.

Regret, however is a waste of time.

Regret is a last ditch effort at control.

Trying to control the narrative, trying to control the outcome. Trying to control how we experience what has happened.

It’s not productive. It’s not useful. Regret draws us into ourselves and away from what we can do to avoid finding ourselves there again.

Regret condemns. Regret feels hopeless. Regret lives in the past. We have no power there.

Regret longs to envelope us in sorrow. In the misty-eyed, dusty pages of days gone by when we could have or should have done something or many things different.

When we entertain regret we drag out all the things from the attic and cellar and strew them about. When we need to move on and get about our day we find all we’ve done is made a mess. Another mess we have to clean up. Another decision we have to regret.

Time is precious. I don’t believe in burning it regretting things we can’t change.

I don’t mind dusting off the past to learn from it, that’s essential to growth. Regret and learning from the past aren’t the same as stewing in the thick soup that is regret.

Channel that energy into what you can change instead.

It’s not too late. It’s never too late to apologize or improve.

If you made mistakes, own them, make amends, do better. The past is over. The future is yet to be written.

Now is the time to focus on who we are and what we can control. To do the hard things. To seek progress.

Regret feels like an old friend but it’s no friend. It boxes you in to a person you long to leave behind.

Offer up mistakes to God. If it can be made right or repaired, make it right and change.

God can give you the grace and mercy to leave your past behind, can you accept it?