Regret

We must not weep for what might have been.  There is still time.

~ Edward Matchett

I wasn’t sure I’d participate is the Weekly Photo Challenge this week because the theme is regret.  I try not to spend too much time with regret because I feel it’s a lot like guilt in that it can hold you back if you wallow in it.  However, it can also be a catalyst for change if you learn from whatever it is that had you feeling guilty or regretful in the first place.

Putting regret into an image was challenging, too.  Of course that’s the whole point, isn’t it?  That’s why it’s called the Weekly Photo Challenge.  An epiphany came to visit this morning, one that made me realize I was experiencing regret.  The regret was about a loss of time, a waste of time.  A year (two years, three years) that could have been.

Sometimes when we’re trying to make changes of the self-improvement variety, time ticks by slowly as we wait to get to the day where the change becomes easy, the new normal.  We wish the days away, hoping to get to that day where the change is incorporated into our lives and it’s no longer a struggle to do whatever it is we’re trying to do (or eliminate whatever we’re trying to eliminate).  A day may come where there is a slip, a small cheat.  Then another.  It snowballs and it’s no longer a slip but a fall.  So you get up and start over.  Or you wait a bit, make new plans, get ready to try again.  And time passes.  A day, a week, a month, a year, several years.  You’re still trying rather than doing.

The beginning of this round of snow.

Then one day you get up, things fall into place, and it’s not all regrets after all because you realize you’ve been making progress all along.

One of the greatest spiritual acts of love is to walk away from recrimination and remorse and accept, in its place, love and your own self-worth.

~ Meredith Young-Sowers

Winter passing through.

We’re under a winter storm warning here in the Bogs today.  It’s a snowin’ and a blowin’.  The wind gusts are picking up big chunks of snow and ice, and carrying them as easily  as it carries the individual snowflakes.

The Mrs.

It’s not a good day to be out and about.  The snowplows can’t keep up with the squalls or the blowing of the snow across the roads.  M and I have decided to stay in.  He’s brewing beer, and I’m getting ready to curl up in the rocking chair by the fire and finish up the Harry Potter series of books.  I’m late to the party where Harry Potter is concerned.  I read the first book years ago, when it came out, with M the Younger.  By the time the second and third books were published, he decided he was too old for Harry Potter.  His wife recently talked him into reading the series and he in turn talked me into reading the books.  We’re going to have a marathon session of Harry Potter movies when we finish reading the books.  I’m on the last one and I think today would be a good day to make some serious progress towards the end.

I have to admit to being surprised.  The books are quite good.  Well written, and engaging.  I was not at all happy with Dolores Umbridge in Book 5 (so obnoxious!), and saddened by the death of a major character in Book 6.  I’ve been so immersed in Harry Potter’s world that I’m even dreaming about some of the characters (thankfully NOT Dolores Umbridge!).

The Mr. (Frost added in Picnik, painting effect added in Photoshop.)

I’d better wrap this up or I’ll be going on and on about Harry Potter which I’m sure will be boring to all of you who made their way through the series when it was all fresh and new.  (It’s still fresh and new to me… just not to most others.)  Thank you for visiting.  Feel free to bring whatever you’re reading and have a seat by the fire.  It’s warm and toasty and cozy, flames flickering and wood occasionally snapping and popping.  A good place to be today.

You should be able to see the pond in the background of this picture but the blizzard is concealing it.

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