I opened an insurance offer in the mail last week that stated in big bold letters, “ON OCTOBER 29, YOU WILL BE 55 YEARS OLD.”  Ouch.  Somehow, just seeing that number on paper smacked me squarely in the face.  It brought to mind those familiar words I heard “old timers” say when I was young.  “If I could live my life over again, and know what I know now, my life would be perfect!” 
      Although I understand now what was meant by that phrase, and at one time believed it myself, I no longer feel that way.  Why?  Simply put, we are who we are because of where we have been, the choices we have made and the fires we have been through. 

Consider this:  If you were able to step into the proverbial “time machine” to live your life over again; not make the same mistakes; not make the same choices, and not live in the towns you have lived in, would you be the person you are today?  Your interests, your goals, your attitude and outlook toward life itself would likely be profoundly different. In fact, you would probably have a different set of problems or circumstances that would cause you to think, “If I could only live my life over…”  Why?  Because the interests you have now, and the things you want in life today stem from the choices and mistakes you have made in the past. If you hadn’t made those mistakes, how would you know what you had missed in life?
      We are faced with choices every day.  Think of the lives that constantly touch ours because of those choices.  For instance; we choose to go to Wal-Mart and run into an old friend, or maybe we meet a new friend while looking at the same books at B Dalton. We dash back into the house to retrieve a forgotten item before leaving for work and catch an important phone call from a family member who needs us. The lives that have touched you over the course of your life, whether you realize it our not, have molded you into who you are!
      Live my life over again?  I certainly would like to erase the hurt I have caused others due to the mistakes I have made. And it would be interesting to know how my life would have turned out had I made different choices, but then I probably wouldn’t be sitting here writing this paper, drinking a cup of coffee, and looking at my beautiful grandsons’ pictures sitting on top of my computer cabinet.  Nah, I think I’ll just keep it the way it is!

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