conquering regret

regret is one of my greatest fears. I was haunted with it growing up, and on my mission i began not only to understand how to avoid it, but also how to deal with it a little. It's an ongoing process for sure. In the 6 weeks since i have been home i have already accumulated a reasonable amount of regret, but having read the church's counsel to not let it over whelm you, i looked to some of the bright minds of the world for a little feedback. These were some of my favorites, and i wanted to share.

Never regret. If it's good, it's wonderful. If it's bad, it's experience.

-Victoria Holt

Accept the pain, cherish the joys, resolve the regrets; then can come the best of benedictions - 'If I had my life to live over, I'd do it all the same.'

Joan McIntosh

Success is meaningless if you can't sleep at night because of harsh things said, petty secrets sharpened against hard and stony regret, just waiting to be plunged into the soft underbelly of a 'friendship.'

Margaret Cho,

Never regret something that once made you smile.

Amber Deckers,

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

Sidney J. Harris

Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it's only for wallowing in.

Katherine Mansfield

Never regret yesterday. Life is in you today, and you make your tomorrow.

L. Ron Hubbard

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

Alexander Graham Bell

The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret.

Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1856)

My lord...by request

Well. i've spoken in a couple wards now since i've been home. and in all of them i shared a poem that i had written. So i figured i'd put it on here, and give a little background about it.

I wrote this while i was in the mtc. I had been in for two weeks. It was a friday night and we had had a great devotional, and afterwards we got to watch a movie. The movie was "the lamb of god", and that one is always a tear-jerker for me. Towards the end of the movie i had all these words coming to my head, and i wanted so bad to write them, but i didn't have a pen or paper, we'd left them in the room after the fireside. So as soon as it ended i dragged my companion back to the room, asked for some quiet, and i wrote this in the twenty minutes before bed. Nothing ever came easier for me. The words were a well of strength and resolve during many points in my mission, and i never hesitate to share it with anyone who will listen. I feel that it captured the spirit of my mission, and of all missions, even before i had really gotten started, or comprehended what would happen!

my Lord,
i wasn't there,
to bear thy cross,
nor did i feel thy thorns,
the soldiers scorn,
fell on thy ears,
and not upon my own,

the whip that fell,
upon thy back,
was spared from marking mine,
thy hands and wrists,
where nails drove in,
left no scar,
on my own skin....

but i feel it from within,

My lord your pain,
suff'ring and strife,
the fact that you,
gave up your life,
will not fall on dead ears,
i'll pray for them, the people,
i'll serve them these two years,

i know there's one,
or maybe many,
who need thy hand, thy voice,
to lift them up, to tell them...
drink of my word, rejoice,

i'll extend my hand,
to those who doubt,
as the spirit speaks,
their hand will reach out,
the love they feel will all be thine,
the hand they clasp,
will not be mine...
as i teach them in thy stead.

i'll drink of thy words,
and live by thy teachings,
let the spirit guide me,
in thy preaching,
that they may feel,
the peace inside,
glory to him,
the crucified.

this is a little poem i wrote when i was 16 (roughly) and i just found it, and i thought it was pretty cool i knew that i was a overwhelmed, and really stressed. i was a pretty deep little sucker.

if you know a way out,
im interested,
what im about?
i lack drive.
today a day,
tomorrow,forever
a trek,
through the depths,
of my will,and self worth,
admitting defeat,
possibly,
hasty retreat,
not likely,
giants oppress me
theyll slip, and will fall
i'll mock them
i'll laugh through it all
myself,
a giant,
the giants,
just rubble,

the further i run, the further i can run.