Only in the grip of time can you regret. As you linger, it may seem to you that the precise moment for a choice for something wonderful has gone. Your life missed a beat, and so, regret within you builds. Be done with regret. What are regrets worth in the market place anyway?
You may pass by a field of daisies, and you don't pick even one. Or you pick a whole bunch, and the daisies wilt too soon. Or they wilt later. Wilting is always too soon. And so you wilt your heart. You weep for the daisies gone. However, the daisies were there for you. You were gifted with the presence of the daisies and, perhaps, a lost love.
What a wonderful moment it is to pick flowers and treasure them. What an offering to you is a field of daisies. A field of daisies presents itself to you.
Daisies like that you look at them. They nod at you as you walk by. Daisies are not regretting your passing by or your picking them or your not picking them. Daisies don't waste their lives on regret. They are daisies and know better. They do not impose regrets on their temporariness. They surrender. They do not even surrender. They enjoy life as it comes to them.
Daisies blow in the breeze, and this is as far as they can go. Of course, their petals can be picked up by the wind and be cast somewhere. And their seeds.
If a whole field of daisies were mowed down, daisies would not mourn. They would not rue. They would not caw: "Nevermore."
Daisies know that life is always on its way somewhere and that life is beautiful whichever way the wind blows.
And when snow covers a field of daisies, the daisies concur: "Ah, to think of the loving hand that covers our fields with snow to keep us warm as we sleep."
Drop the idea that life has passed you by, or that you have passed life by. What you do and what you don't do are life itself. Where did you get the idea that you have missed out in life? Who says that? You say that. Better to be like a daisy.
If you took a path different from the actual path you walked, what might you be regretting now? What do you have to gain by refuting the life you live? You are living life, and that's what life is – what you live. It is you who says your life is well-spent or ill-spent. Who are you to relegate yourself to regrets, one after the other? Who told you to second-guess life? Regrets are no more than changing your mind. You don't have to change your mind. Or, if you change your mind, so what?
I say: "Love life. Love life forevermore." What do you care that the Raven quoth: "Nevermore."
You are a visitor to life in the world. You learn on the go. Thank life. Say thank you to your life either aloud or silently. You are a visitor to life. Who are you to say: No Thank You to Life. Relish life instead.
Hear Life Itself call out: "Claim me. Claim me. Come get me forevermore."
If Life on Earth were a tree, you might hear the tree call out to you:
"Come under my leaves. Hear them rustle. Watch the sunlight gleam through my leaves. Touch my bark. Sit down and lean against my trunk. Just for now. And then move on to your next spot under the Sun for awhile. . . forevermore."
* The reference to the Raven comes from the American poet, Edgar Allen Poe, 1809–1849, who wrote a rhymed poem about his lost love, Lenore, and a Raven who taps at his door. The famous refrain is: "Quoth the Raven: 'Nevermore.'"