Weekly Photo Challenge: Regret

Published on by Cecelia Futch

I don’t think I have ever met anyone who didn’t have some regrets about choices they made, words left unsaid, loved ones lost, or destructive actions that hurt. I hear words, and have said them myself, “if only I had . . . .”  We (I am assuming that I’m not the only one) find ourselves wandering back along the paths of our memories and wincing as we wished we could do “it” over again, only this time better.

One of the formal prayers I daven daily, just before I read the Psalms, has a phrase that has actually become my mantra. Essentially we plead “May I live long enough to rectify the things that I have messed up.” From that I glean that as long as we have breath, opportunities abound to repair the world that we have torn, to do teshuvah (repent) for the wrongs we chose to do. We cannot go back in history and undo what was done, or take the sting out of words spoken in anger or pain. But we can resolve to do better. We can repair what we have broken.

My prayer is that when the sun sets on my life, I will not regret having passed up the opportunity to learn, to grow, to repent, to repair.

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38 thoughts on “Weekly Photo Challenge: Regret”

  5. Wonderful post, Cecelia. One of the best I’ve read in a long time.
    This is very profound, and one has to think long and hard about it … the repent and repair-part. We may not always be able to fix it — not in the way we usually think about fixing stuff — but we can shape up. When the people we have wronged are dead, it feels [of course] definite, but we can care about the living, instead of crawling in to some crippling space of just regret.

    Reply

    1. That’s exactly what I’m talking about! We cannot undo the things we regret doing, but we can make changes, turn our lives in a different direction, work to repair what we can. As you said, better than “crawling in to some crippling space of just regret.” Thanks for stopping by, Rebekah. It is always good to ‘see’ you.

      Reply

    1. Thanks Margie. Would you believe one of the sites I subscribe to on FB just posted the following thought for today: “Cherished friends, never ever give up on yourselves. No matter what you have done in the past, nothing is beyond repair.” Hmmmm . . . something is in the air!

      Have a wonderful day! 🙂

      Reply

  9. Cecelia, what a beautiful photo and essay. I frequently think and sometimes say, “What’s done is done and can’t be undone.” I also like the way our oldest of two daughters (no sons) will say, “It is what it is.”

    Reply

    1. I use the same phrase as you daughter a lot of times. But we keep moving forward, hopefully with wisdom and maturity along the way. Thanks for stopping by, Barbara. You are always so good to visit.

      Reply
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  15. that picture and your last line would make an awesome poster. I love the concept of repair, it speaks of growth and change which is always available to us. We can’t change the past but we can be more, be better, today.
    walk in beauty.

    Reply
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  19. A wonderful post! At first look, I thought how come a beautiful sunset caused regrets! But when I read the essay, it made me make a real important decision I think – “To be responsible enough to rectify the things that I may mess up.”

    Reply

    1. Thanks Doris. And thank you for stopping by. A few more weeks (three and a half to be exact) and I’ll have a bit of a break from my studies. Then I hope to catch up with you and others. I appreciate you stopping by.

      Reply

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