BEGUILEMENT DRIVEN BY WHITE LIES AND FANTASY?
Would’ve.
Could’ve.
Should’ve.
They cannot change yesterday—but they can steal today.
Let’s examine the worlds of would’ve, could’ve, and should’ve.
They linger in the shadows of life and haunt people until their exit—if people allow them to.
The mind is usually the main culprit. It summons old moments and tries to turn them back into present reality.
But the past cannot be resurrected.
It had its time.
Its moment came and went.
That’s it!
REALITY
The moments that came and went already had their full say—whether you admit it or not.
How can I say that?
Visit this moment and see for yourself.
Right here and right now, you have liberty, freedom, and another opportunity to do—or not do—something with your life.
Yesterday does not possess that opportunity.
You do.
STOP THE EXCUSES
The mind can be compared to a fish out of water.
It flips.
It flops.
It gasps, wanting to return to where it came from.
The mind also wants to return to the familiar. It wants to replay what happened, revise the conversation, make a different choice, or recover the opportunity it lost.
But that opportunity was lost in the very moment of its loss.
Now another moment is waiting for you.
This one.
You may do with it as you please.
THEY—WE—KNOW NOT WHAT WE DO
Many times, we do not know exactly what to do with what life presents.
We choose—or refuse to choose—according to what we believe we want or need. Sometimes we discover the result immediately. Other times, understanding arrives years later.
Yes, we occasionally receive a heads-up.
But the clock is still running.
PAUSE FOR CAUSE.
Not knowing everything does not excuse us from living. We make the best decision we can with the understanding we have—and then we learn.
TRIAL AND ERROR
So, we choose.
Then we examine what that choice produced.
Did it help us?
Did it improve something?
Did it propel us toward what we hoped to accomplish?
Did it fail?
Did it leave us exactly where we started?
This is where assessment becomes valuable.
Things are always happening in both the small and large worlds surrounding our decisions. There are circumstances we can see, circumstances we cannot see, and an occasional wild card that no one saw coming.
Life is not a laboratory in which every condition can be controlled.
ITS NOT WHAT WE THOUGHT OR EXPECTED
Big-ticket, life-changing choices sometimes reveal themselves to be different from what we expected.
Marriage.
Divorce.
A house.
An investment.
A career.
A move.
An opportunity accepted—or refused.
Once acquired, these things reveal what they actually are rather than what we imagined them to be.
Now look honestly at the part you played—and the part you did not.
Expectations are controversial little creatures. They can motivate us, but they can also write checks reality never agreed to cash.
WE SEE THIS WITH MATERIAL THINGS
When considering an inexpensive product or service, we calculate the possible benefit and decide.
Smart, reputable retailers understand this and allow merchandise to be returned.
Services are different. If the service disappoints you, you usually do not purchase it again.
Now you know.
Some lessons are inexpensive.
Others arrive with tuition!
MORE PERSONAL CHOICES
Certain choices cause pain, sorrow, and a revealing look at our own ignorance.
Some cut more deeply than others, but all of them carry a lesson shaped specifically for the person who lived through them.
What we eventually recognize is the TIME dynamic.
We had to do something—but what?
You receive only so much time, and there is no guarantee concerning how much remains.
Therefore, we go for it—or we don’t.
Either choice can eventually produce a question.
THE BIGGEST IMPACTS
Marriage and divorce can sting for a lifetime because emotion, hope, identity, and another human being are involved.
But even the person who remained single might wonder about the one never chosen.
Buying and selling bring their own questions:
The house.
The land.
The stock.
The insurance policy.
The automobile.
The jewelry.
Did I buy too soon?
Did I sell too late?
Youth becomes more valuable after it has departed. How many people fully understood that precious period while they were living through it?
Career brings another set of questions. Did we love what we did, or merely need to do it? How many people recognize their calling while there is still time to pursue it?
College and military service offer opportunities, sacrifices, advantages, and disadvantages. Some are glad they went. Others regret going. Still others wonder what might have happened if they had chosen differently.
And around we go.
LESSER LEVELS—STILL LESSONS
Travel carries the lure of mysterious places. Sometimes the destination fulfills the dream. Sometimes it is nothing like the brochure.
Either way, it costs time and money to find out. No refunds on the time!
Food gives pleasure—but may also introduce weight gain, allergies, sickness, or the shocking discovery that the strange-looking dish was actually delicious.
A new automobile brings joy and prestige. Then come depreciation, insurance, maintenance, tires, repairs, and the discovery that nobody wants to pay you what you paid for it.
Expensive lesson here.
LET’S RESPECT HINDSIGHT
Hindsight is your personal teacher regarding your life.
Learn from it.
Appreciate it.
Marvel at the courses of events, different paths, surprising outcomes, and countless what-ifs.
Then let hindsight remain what it was designed to be:
A teacher—not a residence.
Bring the lesson forward while leaving the torment behind.
Return your respect and attention to the present moment.
That is what counts.
WORTHY NOTE: Why live life backward—or forever in the imagined future? There is nothing like the present. Eternity itself is a now that never ends.
Practice for it.
BROODING AND SUCH
To use this present moment to brood, sink in your think, drown in fantasy, or replay yesterday makes you dull, unappreciative, and unresponsive to what is happening now.
Remain in that frame of mind long enough and you will feed old regrets while creating brand-new ones.
That is regret with compound interest.
Compounding is wonderful for your money.
For regret? Not so much. LOL.
I WANT, LIKE, AND PREFER REGRETS
Repeating what does not work—or refusing to live because something once failed—makes you A.W.O.L.: absent without leave from your own present life.
You are permitted to do that.
But it is neither good nor profitable.
FINAL THOUGHT
Your past may explain certain things, but it does not own this moment.
Take the lesson.
Accept what cannot be changed.
Make amends where possible.
Then invest your attention in the opportunity still standing before you.
PEARLS INSIGHT
Regret becomes useful only when it is converted into wisdom.
Otherwise, it is yesterday charging rent for space in today.
PEARLS FROM THE BOOKS
Throughout Pearls for the Soul, one truth continues to surface: life is experienced in the present. Yesterday can instruct us and tomorrow can invite us, but today is where choice, change, faith, love, and purpose must operate.
PEARLS CONNECTION
The Pearls formula does not tell us to deny the past.
It tells us to extract the Pearl from it.
Examine what happened.
Keep the wisdom.
Release the torment.
Use the present moment better because of what yesterday taught you.
RICHIE SPEAKS
Hindsight should teach you—not rent a room in your head.
FINAL SAY
Would’ve cannot do it.
Could’ve cannot correct it.
Should’ve cannot recover it.
But you are here now.
Use this moment before it becomes another moment you wish you had used.
Get rid of the regret.
Keep the lesson.
Live today.
— Richie
Pearls for the Soul
when you feed the soul, you feed everything.
https://pearlsforthesoul.com
Been expecting you