A couple of weeks ago, I flew back East to see family while I was in between jobs. I had a wonderful time getting to spend a week with family in North Carolina.

We were chatting, as one does when visiting family, and my aunt made a really good point that I wanted to share. We were talking about “mistakes” people make in their lives. Looking back now, you can clearly see that it wasn’t a good idea, or maybe you wish you had become a Top Gun fighter pilot instead of your career path. What would your life look like if you had chased that idea, not dated that person, not moved?

And then my aunt said, even with all of those “mistakes”, she wouldn’t do anything different if she had the choice to go back in time. If she was able to go back and change something, she wouldn’t have the family she does now – her kids, her husband, and even her grandkids. She wouldn’t have the life she does now – likely wouldn’t have moved to North Carolina in a house she really likes.

It wasn’t really that deep of a conversation, but as she was driving us back to her place, I sat in the back of the jeep just thinking. All the times we think of something we should have done in our lives, should have tried, should have visited, should have pursued…if it really came true, what would we end up losing?

Now, all of this is kind of a moot point. This isn’t Timeless, we can’t go back and change our past. In fact, Lucy and Aslan had this conversation in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:

“Oh dear,” said Lucy. “Have I spoiled everything? Do you mean we would have gone on being friends if it hadn’t been for this – and been really great friends – all our lives perhaps – and now we never shall.”

“Child,” said Aslan, “did I not explain to you once before that no one is ever told what would have happened?”

But, it might give us a new perspective on some of those past “mistakes” that pop up occasionally. You wouldn’t be who you are, where you are, and whoever you’re with without those “mistakes”. They helped shape who you are. Now, of course, we do some dumb things, and I’m not saying it’s bad to reflect and go “yeah, that was dumb”. But, we don’t have to look at it like it ruined our life. Sure, it may not have worked out like we wanted it to, and maybe it did get a little rough. But you are who you are today because of those “mistakes”.

Or, as Puddleglum so aptly put it in The Silver Chair:

There are no accidents. Our guide is Aslan; and he was there when the giant King caused the letters to be cut, and he knew already all things that would come of them; including this.

It made me smile when my aunt said that she wouldn’t go back and change a thing – she loves her life, “mistakes” and all, because that’s what brought her to where she is now.

A shorter post for today, but something I wanted to share.

Now, one really big mistake that has eternal consequences is not being 100% sure where you’ll go when you die. If you have any questions or doubts, click here to be sure on where you’re going when your time on earth is done.

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