Regrets

Regrets. They are the feeling that we wish we had done something different than the action we took. The radio talk the American Life on NPR has an episode called “Regrets.” In the in the episode, journalists interview people across the United States about the regrets they have in life.  A sixty-one year old man, who was  a son of Portuguese immigrants, was jailed for thirty years for robbery and doing drugs. He stated when he was released from prison his parents were deceased and he wished he could see them again; at the age of sixty-one, he had to savings and his biggest regret was for living behind drugs for so long. Like the man, most of us have had regrets somewhere in our walk in life. We wish we held onto that relationship with that man or woman, or kept going when things get tough in life rather than quitting.
Regrets make us feel bad about ourselves and turn and twist us around.  Mistakes make us feel regret. Our  failures make us regret. Our failed relationships make us feel regrets. We cannot hide from them. We cannot run from them.  The solution to easing regrets is to accept the situation, to learn from it, and to move on. It is not an easy decision to turn regrets into lessons but it is possible if we choose to. If we choose to live and move on, then we will. Sometimes all it takes is to take that first move to live a better life and to move on. It is not simple, but if there is a will, there is always a way.