Letting Go

If you could have one moment in your life that you could do-over, what would it be?

We’ve all had those moments when we just wish we could redo just a few seconds in time, to take back something we said or did. You didn’t mean it, but in the moment, you said it, did it. The fateful ‘if only’ I had done this, or said that…

Maybe it’s the moment of weakness that you didn’t really need, but thought would ease reality, and ended up making reality so much more real.

Maybe it’s a moment of loss of self control in which you gave in to something you didn’t really wish for or even want, that caused a spiral of bad choices.

Or maybe it is something as simple as words spoken at the wrong time, in the wrong place or setting that you can never take back.

If only life had a do-over button. Not necessarily to reverse time, but just to take back a moment that was said or done… your deepest regret. That moment that could alter the present. That moment that could ultimately have altered the future.

I know what mine would be. If only I had reacted differently, how different life could have been. If only I had just shown love, instead of selfishness… My world could have changed. The world of my children could have changed. Even if only for a time.

Yet, I have learned that ultimately, people are who they are. It may not have happened in that moment, but it probably would have happened still. We don’t get a do-over button for a reason. The past cannot be changed for a reason. Because it is the past. And we have to move forward, to live and learn, to press on. Because life keeps going, whether we like it or not, whether we did the right thing or not, or said the right thing or not…. life keeps going. No do-overs. The past may haunt you, but it doesn’t have to define you.

So I challenge you, as I challenge myself… let it go. Make amends where you can, but at the end of the day, let it go. Live in the now, not in the ‘if only’. Live in the present, and let the past go… Your future will thank you.