It’s the last day of this month long challenge, that Inktober challenge to create something with ink every day of the month. I started featuring lyrics made famous by women last year and continued it this year. I started last year with a song from Dolly Parton and decided it was a fitting end to year two to feature her again.
This song was one of the few number one hits for Dolly Parton that she did not write. It was written for Loretta Lynn, but she turned it down. It was then offered to Dolly and she loved it. It hit number one in 1977 and has become a Dolly Parton top ten hit.
I think like these lyrics remind us, eventually things come back that we were not expecting. Be it bad memories, mistakes from our past, situations we thought we had conquered or relationships that roll back around. Our triumphs, lessons learned and our reasons for moving forward come back to us as well. That is why it is so important to know ourselves, know what we do and don’t want and what we are willing to do to get it.
Regret is not a pleasant emotion. It makes us feel less than by reminding us of our past. It makes us fear that we have not progressed as we “should have” when in reality we have progressed more than we know. It sort of reminds me of driving a car. There is a reason the rear view mirror is so much smaller than the windshield. Looking back isn’t as valuable a use of our time as looking forward. Regret tries to make us think otherwise.
Know that portions of life will always come back to haunt or remind us of who we were. Sometimes those moments are helpful, sometimes they just feel like nagging regrets. No matter how the past makes us feel we have a choice to move forward keeping our eyes focused on our goals.
I hope you enjoyed all the lyrics and amazing musical women from this month of Inktober. Stay tuned for more work and thoughts as I close out this calendar year.
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