No regrets

Water laps against the old aluminum fishing boat creating the only real movement in a good hour. “musta been a good size boat create that wake”? “yep” with the silence broken I reached for the cooler and pulled out a cold one offering one to my fishing buddy, my friend, my brother. He shook his head and continued to ponder the horizon as he had been doing for most the morning now. “you doing ok?” I asked him. He just shrugged and said nothing….

So many different words have been used to describe “life “and its tendency to race right past us before we even knew we were doing the driving! “in the blink of an eye” or “faster than a jackrabbit” and many more I’m sure you know. All leading to the same conclusion that life passes us by more quickly than we really want it to. But there isn’t a word or words I can think of other than “regret” to explain how one feels when they know their road is running out and soon they will meet the end of the pavement.is “regret” the word? I asked my brother this question and got this answer…

I do regret a lot of things I did and didn’t do but I won't dwell on them as they are gone and never coming back, as are the “loves” I had that were all magical in their own way, my memories are alive with them and frowns turn to smiles. We all regret some things but do the blessings outweigh the sorrows? Does the happiness crowd out the tears? Did we do our best or settle for “almost”? No, I don’t have any real regrets brother and if I was given a chance to do it all again, well I suppose I would regret it even less…

When he passed I wept and held his hand as he made his journey to a place we both agreed existed. My eyes watered as I let go of him and tried to find that piece of me that was now missing. I opened a cold one and toasted him my bottle held high to the heavens its contents swaying to the gentle rocking of the old aluminum fishing boat…

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