It’s a good time to turn regrets into gifts, for ourselves and others

Staying at home more has caused some of us to turn to cooking and baking as a hobby.  It is easy to look up recipes on the Internet or bring out that dusty old cookbook. They both will tell us step by step exactly what we need to prepare foods, even ones we have never tried before.

It can be fun to put new ingredients into old recipes just because they will add some fresh flavors.  Sometimes this turn out great, sometimes not so much.

What we know is the ingredients we have put together created what we have. We can label it good or bad, but it is what it is. Once we have the results of our endeavors the time to make a different decision is past. We have the consequences of our choices.

This is also true of other things we have done in our life. Staying at home more than usual can give us time to look over the things we have done that didn’t produce the good results we thought they would. We may regret what we have contributed to a situation in our past, but it is what it is. Some once said, “Once a cake is baked, we can’t take the ingredients apart. Once wood is reduced to sawdust, we can’t make it back into a board.”

We are human, we will all make choices that produce unwanted outcomes where, no matter what our intentions were, someone got burned. We can also do things to clean them up. Author Wayne Dyer said, “With everything that has happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what has happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.”

Staying at home is a good time to look at what the gifts are from the uncomfortable times in our lives. We can see where to make amends, where to learn and change, what contributions we bring to this moment from that experience. A great recipe for life is to turn regrets into gifts, to ourselves and to those we have hurt.

This week may all our choices result in delicious, kind, and life-affirming results. Let’s celebrate life with no regrets.

The Rev. Linda McNamar is a Laguna Woods Village resident. 

Source: Orange County Register