Borrowed -- Autobiography in 5 chapters

1) I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost . . . I am hopeless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

2) I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I'm in the same place.
But it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

3) I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I see it is there.
I still fall in... it's a habit
My eyes are open
I know where I am
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

4) I walk down the same street. 
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I walk around it.

5) I walk down another street.

by Portia Nelson from the book There's A Hole in My Sidewalk. 

Excerpt --

"Perhaps the deepest reason why we are afraid of death is because we do not know who we are. We believe in a personal, unique, and separate identity; but if we dare to examine it, we find that this identity depends entirely on an endless collection of things to prop it up: our name, our "biography", our partners, family, home, job, friends, credit cards... It is on their fragile and transient support that we rely on our security. So when they are all taken away, will we have any idea of who we really are?"

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

No regrets

I have always, somehow, found the phrase "no regrets" vaguely disturbing. And I've heard people assert it so strongly, that it was easy to ignore that vague feeling. It's definitely one of those mantras about life that get tossed around so flippantly, and sometimes consolingly - "oh, dont regret anything."

This book I'm reading though, quoted a buddhist poet who said, "My religion is to live --and die-- without regret." That line rang a bell, and made me stop for a second.

Yes, I've done things I regret. And even though eventually life turned out ok, I still regret some of the things I did. So here's a mantra I'm willing to take up -- Not "don't regret anything I did" but instead, "don't do anything I'd regret."

What's it going to be?