Sincere regret may be a faculty for paying attention to the future, for sensing a new tide where we missed a previous one, for experiencing timelessness with a grandchild where we neglected a boy of our own.

To admit regret is to understand that we are fallible - that there are powers beyond us. To admit regret is to lose control not only of a difficult past but of the very story we tell about our present. To admit sincere and abiding regret is one of our greatest but unspoken contemporary sins.

Regret is a short, evocative and achingly beautiful word: an elegy to lost possibilities even in its brief annunciation.

Being a good parent will necessarily break our hearts as we watch a child grow and eventually choose their own way, even through many of the same heartbreaks we have traversed.

Don’t live in regret over missed opportunities, for if you do, you will miss even more.

What I mean is, right from that first time, there was
something in Tommy's manner that was tinged with sadness, that seemed to
say: “Yes, we're doing this now and I'm glad we're doing it now. But what a
pity we left it so late.