Most regrets people carry into old age are about words: the thing they said, or the thing they never did say.
STILLNESS
WHAT THIS MEANS
Words outlast nearly everything else, partly because they cost nothing to produce and cannot be recalled. The two kinds fail differently: a sentence said in anger keeps working inside somebody for years, while a sentence never said leaves a gap that no one else can fill. Both are avoidable in the moment and permanent afterward.
Work on one of each this week. Hold a sentence you would regret for a full day before deciding to say it. Then say one you have been sitting on, the plain kind, to the person it belongs to.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
Which words do you regret more, the said or unsaid ones?
MORE IN TIME, MORTALITY & LEGACY
- When you’re old, most of the stories you’ll love telling will be about times you said yes while scared.
- Chalk art knows the rain is coming. It gets drawn anyway, and somebody walks by smiling before it’s gone.
- Every drawer full of unfinished projects is a museum of the person you almost became. Pick one and finish it.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.