Spunk Rat and I, on our delicious child-free weekend away,
were discussing the things in our past that we would do differently.
I don’t mean things like “I wish I hadn’t drunk the second
half of the bottle of wine last night” I mean the big things – the decisions
you make that, in retrospect, changed the course of your life.
I wish I had gone and lived overseas in my early 20s.
I had a serious boyfriend and great friends here and so I
didn’t go. But I wish I had.
The thing is, I wouldn’t change the way things are now and
the problem with hindsight is that you have to also accept that, had you chosen
that other path, you probably wouldn’t have the life you have.
Perhaps I would be living in a castle on the edge of a windswept cliff
in northern Scotland, married to a sexy Scot with an accent to die for.
Sounds pretty good in some ways but I can’t imagine that he
would make me as happy (or annoyed, bless them) as Spunk Rat, Wild Man, Princess and my
stepsons.
So, even though it is OK to look back, see the choices and
acknowledge them, it seems pretty important to also acknowledge all the good
things you have now and that the other road, the one you didn’t take, probably wouldn’t
have led you to them.
