Regret is like a shadow that refuses to leave your side, a siren whose song we cannot deny. Time and again, we look back and keep wishing that we did certain things differently. "If only" is the eternal whisper that resounds through the passage of time. It is a mantra that most of us recite somewhere in the back of our minds all day everyday. We wonder what our life would have been like had we taken an alternative course of action.All of us have our lists of events we wish never happened. The worst thing about regret is knowing that there is nothing you can do to go back and change things. You are forever left to live with the choices you made, regardless of how sorry you are. It doesn't help if we hurt or lost good people along the way.
No matter how hard we monitor ourselves, sooner or later we will make more decisions that we will come to regret. It is a natural course of action as we have no knowledge of how certain things will play out. The only thing within our power is to weigh every important decision carefully. We do this by relying on logic and rationale instead of emotions. This should help keep regrets to a minimum in the future.
If not rectified, regret can become so potent that it will lead us to make even more mistakes, thus feeding the cycle further. We become like the shades of the Asphodel Meadows, essentially. This does no service to us or anyone else. Instead of letting the flames of regret consume us, we should instead let them inflame our pursuits in life with a greater vindication. It is not despite hurting the ones we love that we must carry on, it is because of them that we must do so.
We must keep pushing on, struggling, fighting a daily battle in the hope that one day, our struggles will bear fruit. And hope is all that we have to go on. But it is this hope that soothes our pains. It is a faint glow in the pitch-black darkness, guiding us patiently, intently.
