Life gives you one "do over"

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by CRedskinsRule

Hard to put this sort of thing in to writing, who knows exactly how different my life would have been, and what about my kids, I would never want to lose them, but one point would have been not marrying my ex, or even before that, joining a different part of the military where, in which case I wouldn't have met her, or had my kids. Maybe I would have had others, but not my 3 I love now. The past is a finicky monster, could I change things I would, but what consequences would result? I don't know, so here I am, in this life, at this time, and I have to make the best with each day...

I am not trying to avoid the question Matty, it's an incredible question. One which I have probed and questioned many times. I just don't come up with a good answer.

Finally, the movie Butterfly Effect is a stunning dramatization of it, and of unforeseen consequences. (so is It's a Wonderful Life for the older generation)

While changing one decision or one event would alter the course of your life, it's exactly the course of your life that makes certain things meaningful.

So like you, I can't imagine my life without my two little girls and never would want to change that. But had my life gone differently and I ended up living in a different place out of college, I'd have ended up with a different wife with different kids. I'd have loved them just as much.

But, when we think about those things, we tend to do so with a "grass is always greener" attitude. Luckily, the kids we do have give us the power to look back on every decision we ever made and be comfortable with it. Because the bottom line is these children make us extremely happy, and we can't imagine life without them. If all our choices in life led to this, then everything worked out just fine.