Older

 As I get older, I find myself contemplating my past, something I guess most will as we move ever so ponderously toward our end. I wish I could say that I have "no regrets". In my studio a couple of decades ago, long time clients who had become good fiends would get a free tattoo, a "no regrets" tattoo, something I would design obviously to suit the work that they have had done, hell I even tattooed one to myself. Back then we were not so readily accepted as tattooed people and this tattoo was the poke in the eye we gave those who didn't understand. I have digressed though as I started this with regret, there is so very much I regret in my life, the choices I made the chances I didn't take and the ones lost along the way.

I treated my parents badly, in my ego I could not see them as they were, flawed like us all. I held them to some ridiculous standard and they were just doing their very best with what they were and had. As the festive season approaches I miss them, I miss my family as messed up  as we all are, we were family. Now as my brothers are spread all over the world, my nieces and nephew as well, I feel lonely for the loners life I made for myself. I chose the path least travelled, and found out why it's not well worn.

I won't go into the lifetime of regret any further as I don't wish to bore you, but what I want to say is, don't deny our regret, see it, acknowledge it, hell embrace it. Let it guide you into making better decisions. Repair those mistakes as soon as possible because time is as Frank N Furter said, fleeting