no looking back

There are many things in life that hold us back: fear, apprehension, anxiety, sadness, anger. But none as great as Regret. It is a state, a situation, a circumstance we are all familiar with; some people more intimately than others. For some of us, its a necessary rite of passage, the proverbial track through the tunnel; learning to simply put one foot in front of the other. Then we see the light at the end of the tunnel. For others, its a burden we carry though the rest of our lives.

True strength is not in not having regrets, its in learning to overcome then.

This girl once heard a story told my a camp counselor who shared that at the end of each summer camp, all the campers would be taken to a quarry and instructed to pick up several huge rocks on which they’d write their deepest and darkest regret. The regrets about, perhaps, not being a better kid, of not being studying harder, or not standing up for a friend. Regrets that were deeply private. And so they’d all pick a quiet corner to write a regret on each of these rocks. And these were rocks, not tiny stones, mind you. Then, each of the campers would carry their rocks in a little sack on their backs and make the hike to the top of the hill where the origins of a river was. And one by one, they were enabled to “release their regrets” into the river.

The counselor recounts that it was a powerful metaphor for the campers, for they had felt the physical weight of carrying these regrets. Some chose to silently carry them alone, others fell back as the weight grew too great. Still more had friends help them make that final track to the top. He continues to share that for many, the physical discarding of the stones that bore their regrets was one the most poignant moment in the campers lives and many were moved to tears: it was emotional, to say the least.

The one thing, he says, towards the end of the session, there were still some campers who elected- most tearfully- to hang on to their regrets, unable to let them go.