Mourning

Choices.

We all make them, we can't not.

Every second we make choice, conscious or unconscious.

Some choices are huge, and some, most are small.

And every choice has a consequence.

But we never get to choose the consequences,

Though there are some, many, that we can anticipate, and then base our decisions on the best anticipated consequence.

Taking in all the possibilities and making all the calculations, we often have the opportunity to make good choices.

But sometimes, we encounter choices that we think are good. Or sometimes we make, even good choices, that come with unintended, unpredictable consequences.

That is a side effect of choice, of life.

When we encounter the unintended consequences of a choice...something we cannot change, because often we can't, we then mourn.

We have to.

We mourn lost time, lost opportunities, broken hearts, missed experiences...the things that will never be, because we made a choice.

We mourn the life we could have had, if only we'd had the sense to choose better.

But,

The fact remains, we didn't choose better.

So we pause. And we mourn.

And hopefully next time...we won't have to, mourn.