What comes to you, at the end?

What you think matters, doesn’t.

I watched this one video on YouTube some months ago. You know the type. A random video the algorithm serves you out of nowhere but you watch it anyway.

This old gentleman was sitting in a home for elderly people. He was about 80 or 90, I can’t remember which now. And he was being interviewed and the chap behind the camera asked him this one question.

Looking back on his life, what did he regret?

He gave such a thoughtful, fascinating answer. Thoughtful because I reckon when you’re over 7 decades old you have the kind of hindsight that younger people could never understand. And fascinating because none of his regrets were any of the things I thought mattered.

He didn’t regret not getting rich or buying more houses. He regretted not going on more travels and seeing the world while he could. He didn’t regret not being more popular or doing something profound and globally recognised. He regretted giving so much time to worrying about what people thought about him.

And maybe even more telling, he regretted letting bitterness about things that had passed weigh on him and consume him.

I think about that video a lot, from time to time.

Social media makes us all feel like we’re missing out on…something. Everyone else is achieving, winning, living.

You’re just out here trying to stretch your paycheck. Or so it seems.

“Give Thanks” has almost become one of those cliche phrases people toss around to stop other people from complaining, but that hasn’t made it incorrect. There is always something to be grateful for, even when it doesn’t feel like it. And I have learnt that some of the best things in our lives are the simplest, the things we take for granted because we have them or can do them or they don’t just seem flashy enough.

The thought of living to the end of my life and looking at a picture of a thing I could have done easily but no longer can fills me with so much sadness.

So.

Maybe take a break from worrying and pushing yourself and trying to conquer and just do something…basic that you’ve always wanted to.

There’s magic in the mundane.