Three, one three, one three.  March 13, 2013.  It seems like it should be significant somehow.  I know tomorrow is Pi Day, so there's that, but 3/13/13 should be important too.  Too bad we don't have 13 months in the year.  But then everyone would want to get married on 13/13/13, and I don't know if a date like that would bode well for a marriage, or a birth, or anything of significance.  Yikes! 

Anyway, I'm rambling.  The blogging prompt for today, day 13 of the March Challenge, is do you have regret, and I hear people all the time very politically correctly saying, "I have no regret ever, because every decision I've ever made -- good or bad -- has led me to exactly where I am in life right now."  That seems like a wonderful sentiment to have, and you'd think a "Cockeyed Optimist" like me would share it, but I don't.

There have been too many times in my life where I have purposely made the wrong choices.  I've treated people badly.  I've been consumed with selfishness and pride.  I've lied.  I've been lazy.  Too many times.  And I regret those times.  Sure, who I am today and where I am today is a direct result of all those decisions, and I'm happy with and thankful for who and where I am today.  But the truth is, who I am and where I am could be amazingly better if I'd been making good choices all along. 

So, yes, I have regret.  I don't beat myself up and dwell on the regret, but I do have it, nonetheless. 

A few years ago, I bought a sign that now hangs in my bathroom.  (Well, it is propped up between the wall and the top edge of my garden tub because I have yet to decide precisely where I want it hung.)  The sign says, "NO REGRETS," and it is propped in a spot where it faces me every morning while I go potty.  (You needed to know this.)  The sign is not to encourage me not to regret my past actions and choices, but to remind me to live my day in such a way that I will not have regrets at the end of it.  That sign also stares me in the face when I go potty at the end of the day (you needed to know that, too), and it helps remind me to review my actions from the day.  If I made any choices or acted in any way that will eventually cause me regret, then I try very hard to contact the people affected and apologize right away or correct whatever actions I did so that I do not have regrets in the future.  The sign has been very helpful to me.

So, if I'm ever sitting on the toilet at the end of the day for an extended period of time, watch out!  I probably did a number on someone that day, and I'm constipated concentrated on how to correct it.