No Regrets, Week 46

Below are a Litany of Quotes on the Concept of "Regret"

I will lead the list with a Platitude of my Own, then a brief bit of explanation.

"When you change one thing, you change everything"

Bill Swann D.O.

Well, I did discover/ realize it,on my own,though I am sure in history many have done similarly. SO,when it comes to regret, be careful for what you wish for.
Our words and thoughts are like prayers, often sent before consideration of the consequences. For myself,a Life lived, ended, with No Regrets, is the Best Life.
Would I have changed this,or that, done this or that,in retrospect?
Well then would I have changed All of the ramifications of those actions.??
Doing my Best,with the Wisdom I had, /have but not attaching to myself to the
Outcome, that is what attempt to do. I do review my life, my decisions,actions,
but attempt to move on,not repeat what, I at that time, I consider misjudgment,
and learn. I think of Arthur Ashe, who died of HIV ,gotten from contaminated blood received during a transfusion after having a heart attack. When asked, did he regret his having this fatal disease, he answered,( and I am paraphrasing)

"If I changed this/take back this event, then I would have to do the same for all the good and blessed events of my life"

e do not get to pick and choose our destiny, our job is to fulfill that destiny.

And as Billy Pilgrim said,
"and so it goes".

Some Quotes from Arthur Ashe:

* "Success is a journey, not a destination."

* "True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost."

* "You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy."

* "If one's reputation is a possession, then of all my possessions, my reputation means most to me."

* "I respected the way they stood tall against the sky and insisted on being heard in matters other than Track and Field -- on matters of Civil Rights and social responsibility. I couldn't help but admire them." --- on the Olympic athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos when they did the Black Power Salute at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City (as quoted by Samuel L. Jackson at the 2008 Espys)

* "From what we get, we make a living; what we give, however, makes a life." (paraphrasing Winston Churchill -"You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give")

* "I believe I was destined to do more than hit tennis balls"

* “If I were to say, God, why me? about the bad things, then I should have said, God, why me? about the good things that happened in my life.”



Some Quotes on "Regret"

"Have no regrets. The elderly usually don't have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets." Author Unknown, from Dreams

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh. Henry David Thoreau

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow." Chinese Proverb

Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true. Robert Brault

I would rather regret the things that I have done than the things that I have not. Lucille Ball

Live in the present tense, facing the duty at hand without regret for the past or worry over the future. William de Witt Hyde, from Grammar

A man is not old until his regrets take the place of his dreams. Yiddish Proverb

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone. Harriet Beecher Stowe

I have no regrets. I wouldn't have lived my life the way I did if I was going to worry about what people were going to say. Ingrid Bergman

We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment. Jim Rohn

Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable. Sydney J. Harris

Looking back, I have this to regret...that too often when I loved, I did not say so. David Grayson

Regrets are the natural property of grey hairs. Charles Dickens


No Regrets
By Agnes Sligh Turnbull

There is only one thing about which I shall have no regrets when my life ends.
I have savoured to the full all the small, daily joys.
The bright sunshine on the breakfast table;
the smell of the air at dusk;
the sound of the clock ticking;
the light rains that start gently after midnight;
the hour when the family come home;
Sunday evening tea before the fire!
I have never missed one moment of beauty,
not ever taken it for granted.
Spring, summer, autumn, or winter.
I wish I had failed as little in other ways.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Regret Today
By Catherine Pulsifer, © 2007

How many times do we say something that we immediately realized was not the right thing to say?
How many times do we look back on an event and think, if only I had....
How many times do we do something that we wish hadn't done?

You can't change what has been said.
You can't change a past event.
You can't change what has been done.

Do you call it regret, sorrow, repentance?
Do you think about what might have been?
Do you relive an event the way it should have been?

Forget about regret, and focus.
Focus on today, not on the past.
Focus on what you can do, not what you didn't do.

The only thing to regret is living in the past
The only thing to feel sorrow for is not living each day to the fullest.
The only thing to do to repent is to sincerely say, I'm sorry. Don't live your life regretting yesterday.
Live your life so tomorrow you won't regret today.