Regrets

Time has fleetingly flown by and death anniversary of my mother is just round the corner. A lingering memory in the last few months of my mother is her bemoaning many events in her life where she felt she could have chosen a more assertive alternative path rather than drift by default. I used to engage with her asking her to visualise that lost opportunity. Invariably alternate paths would also end in something not necessarily as pleasant as she was feeling in the present. There was always something to lose or gain in any alternative sooner or later. Such discussion would bring her back to the present and leave her feeling somewhat contented and recharged.
I used to ponder afterwards and reflect on my own journey with its lows and highs with the same kind of regrets to begin with and then reconcile with the present time for the grit and resilience that I could hone as my survival skills.
Recently, I have come across a book ‘Before the coffee gets cold’ that allows its characters to time travel in the past or future to live through those precise moments that brought them regrets and remorse at having not said or acted that was more appropriate. Unlike some films like ‘Loop Lapeta’ based on ‘Run Lola Run’, where present could be altered by visiting the past, the book though a fiction allows the characters to visit past moment and return to the unchanged present with some perspective that settled their bruised psyche. Set in a Japanese cafe the immersive stories of sour human relationships are culturally similar to what we experience here.
The book filled me up with joy and subtly conveyed the machinations of our minds that refuses to forget the hurts and forsake regrets. Only a somewhat dramatic counter narrative as is shared through the stories in the book would possibly bring us peace even when there is no change in the present reality.