Tags: breast cancer, regrets, materialism
We all have regrets. I have always admired people who say they don't have any. Strangely enough I find mine are about relatively minor things. I don't regret my divorce or spending nearly £1500 on my cat's broken leg to repair it... But there are small things that I do think upon at night, that I beat myself up about even five, ten years afterwards.
For example, when I first arrived in England having lived abroad for many years, I sold a 10 bedroom house in the country to move to London and not having the time or energy to arrange a sale of the furniture in London, I arranged for it all to be auctioned in the country... Pieces of furniture which were very sentimental or really quite valuable went for minor amounts. My grandmother's piano sold for three pounds - it was probably not worth very much more but the point was that it was to me... Just that I neither had the energy, time or space for it...
A year later, I went to a boot sale or a yard sale as you call them in the States. I was selling quite a lot including a saxophone which I sold for around £100 and now I realise it was worth a lot more...
Why? Why do I insist on still beating myself up years later about relatively minor things? Why can't I leave these incidents in the past where they belong?
A friend today, though, gave me an idea. She told me to put my regrets in a boat, a billowing sailed boat and metaphorically push it out to sea. By writing today, I want to do that, I want to entrust those regrets into the arms of the sea...Take what I have, and make it yours....Minerva
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15 comments:
allows a firm breeze to capture the sail of the boat and tug it out to sea xx
What a great idea! I have also heard of people having ceremonies to "burn" their regrets, where they write them all down on paper and then toss that paper into a ritual fire. It sure doesn't do us any good to hang on to them, does it?
in "the program" that i work, we see regrets as keeping on foot in the past. they often bring with them their siblings, Guilt, Shame and Remorse. you are wise to send them packing. the challenge is HOW?
just for me, it helps to focus and act on something new and positive. if i am doing the new, i have little time to re-think the past.
i've missed coming here. Namaste'
Idon't believe people taht claim to have no regrets. I think they, like me, choose not to dwell on their regrets. Like the bogeyman they only have power over you if you think on them.
The piano is in use and being loved somewhere else, the cat wandered aroudnd wreaking cat-like havoc and you saxophone ended up in the hands of someone who otherwise souldn't have afforded it and is now making baeutiful music elsewhere. You haven't made mistakes, you've created opportunities for others. It's all just a matter of perspective.
Better still, build a miniature racing trimaran, hire Ellen MacArthur and get rid of those regrets at top speed.
Lx
PS my verification word was "webmilf" - no word of a lie!
We all have regrets, Minerva, but it's the future that we can shape.
Actually Jean-Luc you can go back into the past, cos I've seen you do it on the telly :-)
Moi, je ne regret rien?
Bollocks
Moi, je regret beaucoup, malheureusement
Regrets trouble me too. I actually have some pretty massive ones, caused by some fairly stupid mistakes I have made. Quite recently too, which makes them pretty box fresh. They turn up like the uninvited troublesome guest at the party of my present day.
I too should pack them up onto a ship and set them out into the ocean. I would however need to find an Aircraft Carrier to get them all aboard ;-)
I try not to think about them too much...my way of finding inner peace. Dropping by to say hello :)
What Rainypete said can I say it again with a loud hailer!
That and the ritual setting sail, burning, disposing of them. That's good too as symbolic.
Thanks for this post which has made me think some more about where I stand on the subject of regrets.
For me, goint to my past is what makes me stronger. I have some regrets, but I have decided to placed them in a box that doesn't have returned address.
(exhaling deeply)
I am sending my breath to carry your boat of regrets far from shore. We have all lost so much, yet the core, the pure part of us remains, if we give it voice
I just stumbled across your blog. I too am plagued by Regret and her sisters Shame, Guilt and Remorse. I hope you won't mind if I link you on my blog so I can continue following your story. Your writing is quite wonderful.
Another way to release things that I "hold" onto is to write each of those things on an individual piece of paper and throw it into fire. As it burns, affirm that it dissolves within your consciousness.
Fire is an ancient purifier.
I love the idea of the boat...Its great..that way no regrets..and we are free of them..I love this blog..
The boat sounds freeing like writing is healing.
best wishes hope
Let the stars guide them.
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