| Living In The City Of Pity, State of Regret, Zip Code Unknown |  |
by Sibyl McLendon
Pity, Regret is a very crowded place to live. Fastest growing place
in the world, I hear! People go there for a variety of reasons, but
once they get there, it is a hard place to leave. Some thought they
were just vacationing there but the vacation never quite ended.
Some purposely packed up and went there to live permanently.
The interesting thing about Pity, Regret is that no babies are ever
born there. There are no small children. This place is populated
only by adults.
You can't even get into Pity, Regret unless you have lived long
enough to make some bad decisions. You have to have had some hard
times in life or you can't even find the place. No one gets there
by accident. It takes a firm decision, even if it is a subconscious
one, to get in.
There is no industry or business there, no one works at anything but
staying there. It takes all of your energy just to remain there.
Citizens of this place have no strength or time left over for
anything but living there.
The population of this place has one main thing in common: they hang
on to pain like a hungry dog will hang on to a bone. They just
can't seem to let bad times go and move on. Rather than living in
the moment, they exist in the past. They even drive their cars in
reverse, looking only at where they have been and never heeding
where they are going.
Pity, Regret is not a friendly city. You will never find a support
group there! Everyone is interested only in themselves, their pain,
their anger, their hurt and their own pasts. They only go out for
the necessities. The only parties they hold are pity parties for
themselves.
There are no schools, because no one is interested in learning or
growing. Learning and growing means they might have to leave.
There are a lot of hospitals, however. This is because the very act
of holding on to painful, negative things makes them sick a lot.
The death rate is quite high in Pity, Regret, but the population
never seems to shrink.
It isn't impossible to leave. People do it. Of course, there are
always new arrivals to replace them, but some folks do move on. It
is as if one morning, some people wake up and have just had enough.
They realize what they are doing with their lives. They look around
at the gray place they have been living in and miss color. They
turn around, and begin to see the future instead of only viewing the
past. They let go.
The minute they leave the city limits, color returns to their lives
again. Flowers are blooming, the sun is shining, and there are
birds singing. (No song birds live in Pity, Regret.) Free of the
city, these lucky people suddenly can see a future stretching out
before them. They stop, shake themselves and take a deep breath of
clean air. They wonder why they spent all that lost time living in
a place where nothing good ever happened. They forgive themselves
for going there because they know they are free of it.
They might still feel sadness, though. Not for themselves, but for
the lost souls who are still living in Pity, Regret. In time, the
memory fades.
© 2003 Sibyl McLendon, a Navajo woman living in the American
Southwest, is a personal empowerment coach for Circle Of Grace.
http://www.circle-of-grace.com
Check out her book, The Myth Of Soul Mates!
http://www.circle-of-grace.com/soul_mates.htm
sibyl@w...
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