Missed Opportunities

This year, for the first year since we planted our peach trees, I am working full-time.  This means less time at home to do things.  This year, for the first time  I could not get all the peaches picked from the tree when they needed it, and, combined with a couple of wind storms, I ended up with a LOT of peaches on the ground.  This happened twice!  The first time it happened I felt sick.  I counted 75 fallen peaches.  Then it happened again about a week and a half later.  All in all, I counted about 150 wasted peaches that hit the ground, bruising them instantly beyond use, or at least beyond what I was willing to use them for.  A hundred and fifty wasted peaches.  That is at least a full bushel.  So sad.  When I took this picture I photographed the side that had less peaches against the trunk.  The other side of the tree was even worse, but I felt so sick about it I couldn't even take a picture of how bad it was.  I was pretty devastated at having wasted so much fruit.  I didn't mean to, it just happened.  But the end result was the same.  Missed opportunity and regret.  I hate regret.  It felt like such a waste of food.  Yummy, delicious food that only comes once a year.  Food that I would like to have eaten and shared.

As I picked up the squishy wasted fruit from off the ground and threw it into our large garbage can I thought about how sometimes I experience other kinds of wasted opportunities as well.  Perfect moments when I didn't say what I wanted to, and didn't get a second chance.  Opportunities to do something for someone else that I didn't take and later regretted.  Times when I hesitated or waited to long and someone else jumped in and got the thing I was waiting for.  Do you know where I'm coming from?

Often I was just not paying attention, or I was nervous and hesitant instead of brave and assertive, but the end result was the same - regret.  I hate regret. 

I have regrets about not keeping up on my blog this year.  The other day a dear friend said she hadn't heard from me in a while, and missed reading my blog.  She reminded me that while I may not get a lot of comments, what I write means something.

The good thing about missed opportunities is the chance to LEARN SOMETHING, painful though it may be.  Next year when peach season rolls around you can better believe I will manage my time better, or delegate, or both.  I have learned something valuable this year.

The same is true in writing blogs, missed perfect moments, and all the other missed opportunities.  We ALL have missed opportunities that we regret.  We are all human.  It's unavoidable, and it's how we learn.  We make mistakes.  That's just how life is.  It's what you do with those mistakes that matters.

This is silly, but after I picked up all the fallen peaches and put them in the garbage can, I covered them over with grass clippings so I wouldn't see them and think about them any more.  It was time to put my mistakes behind me and move on.

Just like with my fallen peaches, when we have missed opportunities in life,it's wise to take the time to figure out what should have been done differently, and what to do differently the next time.  Leaving the garbage can lid open, so to speak, so you can constantly revisit what you missed may not be the best option to help you move forward.

Instead, considering going through the regret, figuring it out for the future, then covering your missed opportunity with figurative grass clippings, closing the lid and moving forward.  There will still be more peach seasons and life opportunities to come.