NO REGRETS

We've just enjoyed a long weekend in Sydney, albeit a rainy one.  I always love weekends, but when we have one extra day tacked on the end, they're even better!

We were invited to a friend's farm on the Saturday night for a good old-fashioned bonfire.  It was so much fun and reminded me of bonfires when I was a kid.

One regret I had over the weekend was that we missed out on going to the Vivid Festival in Sydney because of the rain.  Oh well, next time.  Another regret is that I slaved over a hot stove to cook up an Organic Cauliflower & Almond Soup that my family didn't like.  But it didn't matter in the end, as I gave half to my brother and the other half to my friend who both love cauliflower soup (of all things)!

I then had to come up with something else for dinner and wanted to use some of the delicious organic veges I'd just had delivered from Aussie Farmers Direct.  So I concocted a Vegetable Pie, in the hope that it would pass the scrutiny of the family taste test...they're hard judges to crack when it comes to dinners using only vegetables and (dare I say it) absolutely no sign of meat!

But YAY...they loved it.  (By "they" I mean my hubby and son, because my daughter is a fussy one and instead of having her pick apart my lovely pie, I made her a separate one with just spinach...I know, I know - I shouldn't be cooking separate meals, but I wasn't in the mood for any complaints that day!)

You should definitely give this pie a try (oooh, that rhymes!):

Easy Vegetable Pie

1 sheet ready-rolled puff pastry, thawed
6 free-range eggs
1 cup milk
4 cups baby spinach leaves (approx), chopped
2 carrots, diced
1 zucchini, sliced
1 broccoli, chopped
1 cup tasty cheese, shredded
Ground black pepper & sea salt to taste
3 tablespoons of olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.  Lightly grease a pie dish.
2. Heat olive oil in a pan, add carrots and saute over medium heat until slightly softened.  Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
3. In a mixing bowl, mix together eggs and milk.  Stir in spinach, zucchini & broccoli  and add sauteed carrots.  Season with freshly ground black pepper and sea salt.
4. Lay sheet of puff pastry in prepared pie dish.  Pour egg & vegetable mixture on to pastry and sprinkle all over with a covering of cheese.
5. Bake in oven for approximately 45 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through.  Serve warm with a lovely garden salad.

Mentioning some regrets earlier got me thinking of how important it is to pull ourselves out of a mindset of regret.  It's fine to learn from our regrets, or mistakes we've made in life, but it's such a shame when we allow regrets to disable us.

I have a very long, and ever-growing "to do list" for my life.  I've mentioned many times my positive affirmation that I'll be living a long and healthy life, because there's just so much I want to do.  But the thing that I've put on the top of my list, as you can see above, is "live my life with no regrets!"

Although, some regrets are an inevitable part of living, it's the way we deal with these regrets that is crucial.   If you regret something you said or did, then apologise for it.  If you were hurt by someone, avoid wasting time and energy on blaming them, accept that it was wrong, but it happened and try to move on.  If you're in a toxic relationship, get out of it.  It takes a whole lot of courage to address regrets, but I believe if you can allow yourself to let it go, there's a real freedom in that.

Sometimes it's too late to fix a regret.  Other times it can be fixed, but we choose not to.  And then there are those awesome moments when we choose to address a regret and are totally blown away by the positive outcome.  I remember when I was first diagnosed with breast cancer, I thought I needed to fix some stuff in case I died.  I had a dear school friend who I'd lost contact with years before.  I really regretted it, so I made a point to contact her again.  I asked her to forgive me for drifting away and we haven't looked back since.  I know now we'll always be in each other's lives and hopefully grow old together.

I've often heard of people having so many regrets on their death bed...I wish I didn't work so hard, I wish I went on more family holidays, I wish I'd stayed in touch with so-and-so.  I can't think of anything worse.  I don't want to live a life of regret.  I don't want to mourn the things I can't change.  So I've come up with another "to do list" for avoiding regret as much as possible:

• Spend time with important people in my life
• Be genuine and true to who I am
• Think before I speak or act
• Pursue my passions
• Do the things that are important to me, rather than what others expect of me.

I'd like to leave you with one of my favourite prayers...

The Serenity Prayer

(Written by Reinhold Niebuhr)

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.

Amen.