Regrets. Blame them or thank them? It's our choice.

​I believe there is something to be learned in every moment in life. Without exception. If I don't learn something from this moment, it won't be because there was nothing there to learn, it will be because I didn't take time to explore the lesson.

Learning for me is forward motion. It is anticipation of what is to come. When your mission in life is wisdom, you never run out of reasons to look forward to tomorrow.

I haven't always been that way. In fact, I'm less than a decade into this passion for learning. For gathering all that the world wants to teach me. To know and to share.

Some would say that's age; wisdom comes with age. I don't believe that. Wisdom doesn't come to all who age.

It just doesn't.

Wisdom comes to those who long to be wise. Wisdom comes to those who have the capacity to change the way they see the world.

For me, a lot of that change came with the way I see regret. Maybe I used to collect regrets far more than I ever collected wisdom. Or collected anything, really.

I blamed the moments and choices in my life that I regretted most for stealing life from me. But when you decide that wisdom is your greatest treasure, your greatest pursuit, your regrets can become some of your greatest teachers.

You come to realize that regrets stole nothing, and in fact, you can come to see your regrets as great givers of gifts. There is much to be learned from things that felt like they went wrong but were actually just asking you to consider a different direction.

Everything behind you - every moment, every choice, every experience - those things are all indeed behind you. All that remains of them is what you choose to see when you dare to look back.

I used to look back with blame and guilt and shame.

Judgement.

Today, I am committed to looking back with curiosity.

What more can you teach me, dear regrets?

I am no longer going to blame you for where I can't go, but I will instead look to you for guidance. New directions. I see you for what you are, now. You are like every other moment in life. You are a teacher.

If I have one regret that remains, it's that I didn't see you for what you are sooner, regrets. But I will learn from that as well.

For today, I won't allow myself to be even for a moment on a collision course with regret. Because no matter what comes my way today, it is coming to teach me something.

It is offering the gift of wisdom.

If I don't accept the gift, it will have nothing to do with age, and everything to do with choice.

No regrets.

Wisdom.