No Regrets...?

Whenever I hear of the phrase 'No Regrets' it either reminds me of the Robbie William's namesake song or the question-answer round in beauty paegents where hopeful beauty-queens give boilerplate type anwers when posed with the question 'Do you have any regrets? and why?'; their answers always seems to be an overwhelming 'No' and the reason being that they do not regret anything as it helped them to become a better person and taught them important life lessons. I do agree with them on the latter, there are important lessons to be learnt from each of the crests and troughs of life, but having no regrets is quite surprising.

I have my own bagful of regrets. Like the majority of people my regrets have to do with things I will never get a shot at again. For me that would have to be talking to my grandparents, asking them about their childhood, their favourite food or what their favourite colour was...

You see, my regrets have to do with people and not taking the time to enjoy their presence in my life. I regret getting so caught up with my studies that I did not make the time to visit my maternal grandad for 7 years, only to make the journey for his funeral. He was a wonderful man that I knew of, but knew nothing about. There are so many questions that I would've loved to ask him and stories about his experiences that I would've loved for him to tell me. This taught me how fragile life is and how someone can be snatched away from you in a second. There is no notice period in life...

I became resolute in my desire to learn more about my surviving grand parents. I spent time with my surviving grand father to learn more about him but unfortunately that was short lived as well. His Alzheimer's took effect overnight and he no longer remembered who I was. It broke my heart to see that this man no longer knew who I was. His memory was wiped clean, how was he to tell me about himself?
These are my biggest regrets.

I think it is natural to have regrets as it gives us the motivation and the drive to strive for betterment. We shouldn't dwell on them instead recognize them and learn what that situation has to teach us. So, take the time to really smell those roses during the spring, spring will always roll around next year, question is, will the roses be there? will we be there to smell the roses?