Regrets

I was searching for a better word for regrettable but will settle for regrets. We are often told to never look back, to erase bad memories, to burn bridges left behind. But, try as we may, it is virtually impossible to live without some regrets. But is it really impossible?

I think so for a couple of reasons. One is that if we harbor an incident we may regret it when it is impossible to do anything about it. Let me illustrate. I was a month under four years of age when my mother passed away. Cancer took her life and I barely knew her with possibly a memory or two that seem quite unlikely that they would have been recited to me. And that is about all I remember.

My regret is that I didn't ask more questions of those who knew her including my father. For some reason, he couldn't or wouldn't talk about her. Now dad is long gone and my mother, born in 1892, most likely is not survived by anyone who knew her personally. This ironically could justifiably be considered a senior moment, irreparable, although I do not nor will I languish over it because I don't have to even though I do wish I would have been much better informed.

However, I can use this space to encourage anyone who reads these words to cross over those bridges to the past rather than torch them. There could be unfinished business that is regrettable because it cannot be finished: a grudge held much too long, a debt never repaid, a deliberate slander that caused considerable grief. Now what do we do? Wallow with remorse and guilt? Here is where we can torch those proverbial bridges because it cannot be rectified.

Here lies a big solution. Many doubt its efficacy because it reeks of religion. But if there is a better way, go for it, but if not, guilt, remorse and wrong doing can be forgiven, even erased by confession to an invisible but eternal deity who is in the business of forgiving and helping us to forget when all else fails. Whether it is regret, guilt, remorse, God is available, willing and waiting. Why not give Him a try?