General

Reenais the host of Reena’s Exploration Challenge

~*~

If only

Any sentence starting with this phrase

Can be hiding a world of wistfulness behind it

The what if’s, the if only’s are the curse

Which spoil many a moments and even lives

There can be only one reality

So looking for alternate scenarios is futile

What happened or happens has a cause and effect

No one has ever learned to go back and change it

~*~

#Keepitalive

#ReenasExplorationChallenge

Wistfulness

Only if I knew it then (Wistfulness)

I remember sitting in a night club in my thirties with a friend and her sister and the subject of “only if I knew it then” came up on men and relationships with them. As with many, there had been some less-than-wise choices along the way for each of us. An epiphany struck then, and I said, “If we knew then what we know now, none of us would have gotten married or had children.” As we all love our children, we had a good laugh and then gave it a respectful acknowledgement.

Life is a package deal. The good, the bad, and the ugly come with it, no matter how wistful we get for a chance to re-do some of those less-than-wise choices. Life is a learn-as-you-go deal, and the mistakes are where much of the learning comes from. Having dynamic…

Reena’s Exploration Challenge #105

only if I knew it then…

maybe I would have revised some decisions
or
traded carefully in tough situations
or
had been less impulsive
0r
whatever…

but one thing is sure

it would have  taken away

all the thrill from my life

would have hampered my growth

knowing beforehand is not profitable

always

it shackles you sometimes

life would have been like reading

a mystery book
or
a movie knowing

the end beforehand

As we age, we have a lot of time to reflect on the past.

Behind us littered in our wake are the exploits of our earlier lives, some noteworthy but many cringeworthy to say the least.

It does become a matter of wishing you knew then what you know now. But those errors we made have all contributed to making us the people we are now.

It’s after it’s all over that you get to evaluate the many episodes in your life that have shaped the person you are now.

For many of us older folk, we look back at how naïve we were. I, for one, thought, like so many, that I had a handle on this life thing, but experience was to tell me I didn’t. I stumbled along, making mistakes, getting involved with the same sort of people and committing the same mistakes over and over.

I…

Wistfulness is a feeling of sadness, because you are thinking about something that is impossible or in the past.  In May 1964, Paul McCartney wrote the song ‘Things We Said Today’ entirely by himself even though it is credited as a Lennon and McCartney song.  Paul was cruising the Caribbean on a holiday in the Virgin Islands aboard a yacht called Happy Days with his then-girlfriend Jane Asher.  The melancholy lyrics reflect that Paul understood that his and Asher’s lifestyles would increasingly drive them apart, although they did stay together until July 1968, and in December 1967 announced their engagement.

The Beatles just completed filming A Hard Day’s Night on April 24th and their manager Brian Epstein arranged for them to have a month off in May to do as they pleased and they all enjoyed some (relatively) peaceful times.  Paul and Jane an English actress went on the cruise…

A ,

Baby born,

Cradled into the lap of nature,

Defying all odds, it springs up,

Energising life on Earth,

First steps taken, making way for,

Grand memories,

Hiding emotions,

It naught knows,

Joy, sorrow, anger,

Kindness, playfulness, hunger,

Like a ,

Mirror, it reflects all,

New surroundings , its,

Open to experiences,

Piqued by its interests, sets on a,

Query mode,

Running, ever energetic,

Silence, it barely feels,

The whole ,

Universe catches its,

Vibrant imagination,

Where did it lose its,

(e)Xuberance, as the,

Years pass by? Its

Zealous streak ?

If only we acknowledge that we are an unique creation, life for each one of us would be very different. We would enjoy each minute, rather than getting bogged down by the…

Wistfulness

THIS WEEK’S WORDS come from “The Loft” by Richard Jones: bed, river, room, burned, listened, weaving, empty, dreaming, final, calm, spoke, arms

Only if I knew it then
That it takes two to tango
Give and take, speak and listen
Weaving into life, taking its challenge
That I shouldn’t have taken you for granted
As you left the room and the bed’s empty

Only if I knew it then
That the river runs deep
Burning with desire, calming the sea
Trust is important, the final countdown
Dreaming that you’re still here but
Arms apart on the other side of the world

(c) ladyleemanila 2019

For: Reena’s Exploration Challenge #105,  Whirligig 230

thoughts running rampant
beyond all sense of reason
empty, save the noise

This senryū is a late response to
Reena’s Exploration #104 Challenge – Long and Short of It, using three words
– all, empty, and noise – from the provided quote by Jiddu Krishnamurthy.