I watched the movie called Letters to Juliet again recently. An aspiring American writer on vacation in Italy finds an unanswered “letter to Juliet”. It was one of thousands of missives left at the fictional lover’s Verona courtyard, which are typically answered by a group of women called the “secretaries of Juliet”. She answers one written 50 years before by an English woman played by Vanessa Redgrave. Vanessa’s character Claire along with her grandson come to Verona in answer to the reply that Sophie wrote. She and the young writer played by Amanda Seyfried go on a quest in the area around Verona to find Claire’s lover referenced in the letter. Spoiler alert — as a result, they find him and Claire marries him.)
At the end of the movie we’re at Claire and her lover Lorenzo’s wedding reception. Claire reads the letter that Sophie (Amanda Seyfried’s character) had written to her in which Sophie wrote the following:
“Dear Claire. What and if are two words as nonthreatening as words can be. But put them together, side by side, and they have the power to haunt you for the rest of your life. What if? What if? What if? I don’t know how your story ended but if what you felt then was true love then it’s never too late. If it was true then, why wouldn’t it be true now? You only need the courage to follow your heart. I don’t know what a love like Juliet’s feels like, a love to leave loved ones for, a love to cross oceans for, but I’d like to believe, if ever I were to feel it, that I’d have the courage to seize it. And Claire if you didn’t, I hope one day that you will. All my love, Juliet”
WOW … what a powerful expression “what if” is. What if … you had made a different choice in life – what if you had/hadn’t married, what if you had chosen to divorce/ not divorce, what if you had/ hadn’t sold your house, what if you did/ didn’t start a business, what if someone didn’t invent the light bulb, the telephone, television, personal computers, the internet, … the list goes on and on.
Choices
We make many choices every day that are small or big. Life is full of possibilities and choices and some of them can be overwhelming.
I faced a huge choice (dilemma) when I had the opportunity to go to San Francisco and work with an American friend to help him build and run a business. Was it too late in my life to do this? I was in my mid-40s and had always wanted to live in San Francisco. I had no children and no husband so it should have been an easy choice, right?
Wrong. I agonized over whether I should go or stay here in Toronto, made pro and con lists, asked friends and family and got different answers everywhere. What finally helped me choose to go was my answer to the question … “what if I don’t go and regret it for the rest of my life.”
The rest is history. I went there. As a result, it cost me financially to have two residences, two sets of furniture and two cars. But there would have been a lot of negatives which I would have faced even if I’d stayed here in Toronto.
The positives and benefits won out! While I was there I owned a red convertible, a sailboat, lived near the water, and travelled to many places in the U.S. I could have done many of them if I’d stayed in Toronto but more important than any of these was the experience of living somewhere I’d always wanted to.
What if I’d chosen to stay in Toronto? Who knows? There would have been different choices to make.
I have no regrets.
Let’s go back to the expression what if. Make choices based on your heart and ask yourself the question “what if I don’t” . Remember that it’s never too late.
Have you made a choice that you regretted later? Have you made one that was the right one?
