~ No Regrets ~

Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.  ~Arthur Miller

Regret.  Each day we face a "regret" somewhere in our life.  We regretted that extra cup of coffee because we have a 45 minute commute to work, the pizza that, even though it smelled and tasted so good, your thighs will be hating you because of the regretful pound you have just added, that extra spoon of whip cream - wait it's just an extra spoon of whip cream - what harm will that do really?!, regretting that you loved having the wind blow in your hair with all your windows down in the car but to soon realize the wind was a storm on its way and you now have the Pacific Ocean on your floorboards and your car smells like wet feet with a hint of oh no!,a mean comment, a mean look, a lost moment, a bad choice.  With all these regrets, the key is to finding the RIGHT regrets.  Now to just sort through the massive box of regrets putting the wrong regrets in their pile and the right regrets in their pile and the "I really don't know if that's a regret or a I don't want to remember I did that" in their pile.

Let's look at the regrets that most can live with.  We will get to the regrets that shaped us, molded us, and taught us to never pass up a chance and live with another regret.  Okay the extra cup of coffee is easy!  Don't drink it.  Wait, that's not easy because most need that first cup to open our eyes, breathe, and function in the first 15 minutes of morning without having a warning label stuck to your butt.  The second cup is for the "Awww, this day will be okay, I think, well I hope, doesn't matter, I made it through the first cup."  Let's leave that regret to a need to occur basis.  One never knows how the mornings will go when our feet hit the floor.  Pizza!  Oh my favorite regret!  A Pizza Hut, Super Supreme, Extra Cheese!  YUMMY!  That Super Supreme leaves a Super Supreme bloat and poundage!  But the cheese pulls off and hangs there from the plate to the box.  What is one to do?!  Well of course, seperate at the box!  Can't leave the excess just lieing there on the pizza, to the side of the pizza, near the pizza.  Lunch? Pizza! hehe  Now this regret is easy. DO NOT ORDER PIZZA if you are even REMOTELY on a diet.  You are asking for regret and sadness.  You regret the choice then figure you already ate half of it might as well finish the rest.  Why not?  You are not a quitter and you are already sad and the last bit of mushrooms, and meats, and of course, cheese, would really perk you up!  Simple regret that can be worked off with exercise (20 hours nonstop on the treadmill) and avoiding every Pizza Hut known to man.  Oh and did I mention my FAVORITE at Pizza Hut - Hershey Dunkers (this is a regret I could live oh and Fudgees!).  Pass over the whip cream. 

Okay picture this cloudy day, wind blowing, and you decide that's it's the perfect to roll down the windows and just be one with the wind and "Life in the Fast Lane" blaring on the radio. Enter car, windows down, radio - Um no "Life in the Fast Lane," your daughter's Justin Bieber CD?!- oh well Baby Baby Baby will have to do. Interstate 70 mph, more clouds (hmmm this is a sign), more wind (another sign), wind blowing the car to the left (MAJOR SIGN), was that light..? Oh wait turn off cd, BRITNEY SPEARS on the radio! Time to Jam!  As you are feeling like you are 16 with your license for the first time, singing like a Grammy winner, it never occurs to you the massive storm approaching.   Pull into the driveway.  Got to bob the head until the song is over, song over, car off.  Get out, take a deep breath (on Cloud 9 of teenage lightness), enter house - Laundry and back to reality.  The rain starts and you think it's washing away all the dirt and grime and you love the rain and it's smell and open windows and 10 minutes pass when you look out onto the yard and monsoon (hurricane force winds and battering) rain, there it is. O M G.  You left ALL the windows down on your car with cloth seats, cloth everything.  You run outside, wait forgot the keys (now stop a moment, doesn't it seem like the rain gets harder and heavier when you need to get to something outside), run back inside, keys where are the keys (another 10 minutes has elapsed), keys!!, run outside (you are soaked worse than Spongebob in Bikini Bottom), open the door, your feet splatter into the Bay of Campeche (spelling?), turn key, windows up, close door, run inside.  Awwww, all is well.  That is until you then see the sun start to come out 30 seconds after entering the door and the heat hits and you see your car becoming a sauna or plant house that will no doubt grown some sort of strange smell and fungus that could possibly cure some sort of disease.  The inside of your car is drenched.  Your floorboards are like little mirages of pools that your daughters Barbie's could sit by.  Your seats would work well to wipe off any Jolly Green Giants countertops.  And the smell.  The smell starts to hit not a day later.  The regret - should have rolled up the windows!  Please note, roll up the windows in good weather, bad weather, unexpected weather, or whenever.  Not only does rain pose an issue. Try being in a vehicle with two screaming girls because there is a Bumblebee flying around like he is in Star Wars chasing the enemy! 

Then there are the regrets that nothing can fix or erase or mop or kill with bug spray or diet away from.  Each day consists of each moment and all it takes is that one moment to have the biggest regret.  Those regrets hit hard and stay around longer than your mildewed carpets in the car and the smell that you have had detailed over 5 times!  Should have never decided the wind was a sign to be free on the interstate!  Anyway, as I read that quote up above, I tried to take an inventory of every regret small or large that I had accumulated to date.  I noticed as I tried to sort them, I had more bad regrets than right regrets (with a few, "I don't want to remembers").  I thought to myself, "Geeze, I really have made choices that have altered the course of my life."  I wanted to say, well if I wouldn't have done that or said that, I would be in a better place.  But all regrets good and bad are a part of fate.  Think about it. We all have a certain path to travel and maybe regrets are part of the scenic route.  They are included with the tour and you can't get out of the option to have them. Wouldn't it be nice that you would have this package option of what you wanted out of life and what you didn't and you would check off all you the things you didn't?  Even though we wish things would have been different and say, "Shoulda Woulda Coulda but Didn't," we are human.  The man up above has a plan for us and even though we aren't sure why we did the things we did, it's part of a greater plan.  You learn from your choices and you move on.  But with being human, comes with free will and regrets. Regrets about that pizza and regrets about life altering decisions.  But even with our biggest regrets, we get to a point where you know that regret lead you to someplace greater.  There was a sore spot in between but wait, what's that?  Destiny.  Looking at regrets big or small this pile or that pile will not get you anywhere.  There is a reason you made the choice you did and in the end, it was meant to be that way.  Guess the trick is to figure out how to accept that....

Checklist:  Kaesen up with Bottle Time: Check, Girls sleep in for an extra 15 minutes: Check, "where are my shoes, belt, did you find my shirt?, lunch money (no! You are bringing a sandwich): Check, All three children and myself in car: Check, Keys?  Crap, back in house, there they are: Check - Girls at school: Check, Kaesen at Sitter: Check, Traffic: Check - Work: Check - My Mind:  It flew out the window while I was singing Britney Spears! :)