We decorate graves with flowers and shed tears for the dead, but we don’t pay attention to the people who are still alive and around us. Sadly, when these people are gone, we recall their memories and wish we had done something good or more for them which we couldn’t do — this is called “regret.”

Regret is just an emotion like love, jealousy and hatred, but one of the most powerful emotions. Regret is a toxic emotion because a person who is going through regret usually failed to play a positive role in the betterment of society and is not ready to see positivity in life.

Regrets arise from the way we live and by not bringing about any change to correct it. For instance, with every passing day, we are becoming selfish, ravenous and egoistic. We don’t appreciate relations and tend to take them for granted. We recall the love and affection of our parents and siblings, but only when they are not around, not in our life.

“Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones because regret is stronger than gratitude.” — Anne Frank

We sow the seed of ego in our heart and water it until one day it becomes regret. This has become the philosophy of our lives or you could call it hypocrisy, because we need more attention, love and appreciation for ourselves, however, we are not ready to give back even one percent respect to others.

We could act and think like a traveller who enjoys his journey, in which sometimes he visits the same places he had seen earlier, but when he reaches that place again, he experiences it with a new vision and a new feeling.

In conclusion, we are all very rich and blessed with talents, physical strength and capabilities, but we are not thankful for these blessings. We are too busy complaining about various things.

The best way to lead a happy life is to enjoy it like a traveller or a child. Don’t pass every day as routine. With every morning comes new hope and new vision … start seeing the beauty of life and enjoy every day without regrets.

Published in Dawn, Young World, October 12th, 2019