In the end, we can only count a tally with hindsight (i.e., post-demise)

Stepping onto the patio
on a sunny late spring morning,
I asked myself
whether I had wasted my life.

Yes, it is true that I could have done some things more laudably
and achieved to a greater extent than I did.

And, yes, it is also true that I could have done things more ignobly
and caused additional suffering and strife.

In the end, though, I lived my life bound by centuries of patterns;
yet, occasionally,
with an awareness
that illuminated everything in peace.

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