Regret Effect

"When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."

~ Alexander Graham Bell

Life brings many opportunities to choose to focus on either the closed door or the open one. Along with that come many chances to feel regret.

Regret leaves an effect behind when it seems to pass us. It's not always an effect we notice or we name, but it is there just the same. There's a palpable sadness, an internal turning back, a yearning for what was. As we turn back, we miss what is present in our lives at this very moment. We fail to recognize the good, the holy in the now.

When we are given the opportunity to ‘return’ to that past moment ~ a reconnection with a previous partner, a replay of a business meeting, a once-favorite fishing hole ~ it doesn’t really matter. We are different now. Time and life have both gone forward and what we ‘remember’ is no longer what it once had been. There really is no going back.

Occasionally we have to force our eyes and our minds forward, toward the open door. We have to accept that the other door has closed, no matter how much we want it to be different. When we move on with purpose and intention, we find there is grace and beauty in that forward motion. The new doorway that has opened brings its own set of joys and challenges. It is the direction of life.

Are there things in your life that you regret? What do you think would/could be different? How has your life progressed past that time? Have you gone through the open door?