For 2026 — No Regrets If You Didn’t Lose

You are insane!” Bella screamed at Seana as she entered their Apartment complex office. “I am taking her to court for the damages she did to our property!”

“You are on your own with that,” Seana informs her.

“You are a part-owner of this apartment that we rented to her, which she destroyed. If you don’t show up in court to give evidence, we won’t get any money back from the damages that she did!” Bella reminds her

“We didn’t lose anything,” Seana said.

“You are really insane!” Bella screamed, easing towards her desk. “It cost us six thousand, nine hundred dollars to repair the damage she did to our property, and you say that we didn’t lose anything!”

Seana sighed long and deep, eased back into her chair, and elaborated, “I can’t regret the damage she did because we didn’t lose. But she did.”

“What did she lose?”

Seana smiled, “Thanks for leaving the best for last.”

Bella sent her an annoying look.

“What she used to pay for rent here has tripled over the six years she occupied our property. She now has to share a smaller apartment with her cousin and is paying 1.5 times more for what she got from us, in a worse neighborhood. Our apartments are bigger and she doesn’t have to share anything. She has her own everything. She has limited privacy, and from what I hear, she has to pay for parking that she got free from us,” Seana explained.

“Damn!” Bella plopped down in a chair, facing Seana’s desk.

Slowly, she smiled, staring at her.

Seana continued, “We didn’t have to go to court after giving her an eviction notice. She moved quickly. In three months, the profit from the increase in the rent we charge for the apartment she damaged, which we renovated, based on market rates, will cover the damage she caused. Therefore, I have no regrets because we didn’t lose anything. Thanks to her, we have increased the property value that allows us to increase the rent for any new tenants coming in.”

“What if we had lost?” Bella’s curious frustration demands.

Seana smiled, then enlightened, “how we live our lives, and the kindness, thoughtfulness, love, understanding, along with all of the good we did for her and to her, are balanced in our favor. We would have lost more if we were as cruel and thoughtless as she.”

“But you and I have lost more in the past,” Bella reminds her.

“What we lost teaches us valuable life lessons, and if you can remember, those mistakes are never repeated. So, we learn from their cruelty, improve our business practices and lives, and move on,” Seana sent her back.

“You are right,” Bella admits as the pain from their many past issues with tenants replayed.

“She has lost a lot more than we have and will be comparing our business practices and the kindness and understanding we give her with every landlord she encounters,” Seana continues.

“So, because you lose nothing, there is no space for regrets,” Bella asks, her mind still in the past.

Seana stared at her for a while as her words took a powerful effect, and understanding set in.

Bella nodded in understanding, then shared, “I like your way of thinking. So, every time we lose, it teaches us vital life lessons, and because of how good we are to all of them, kindness is balanced in our favor, eliminating regrets for us, but not for them?”

A big smile spread across Bella’s face, and her joy glowed, “so she will be saying, I shouldn’t have done what I did to Bella, and Seana. Their place was better, cleaner, friendlier, and safer, and they would be good to me. I didn’t have to pay for parking, and my car was in a safer location with AI watching it. She will be drowning in regrets!”

When she finished gloating, Seana asked, “Still taking her to court?”

“I think we should send her a thank-you card?” Bella’s happiness implied. “Can you imagine having to live with that mountain of regrets?”

“I agree,” Seana said, giggling. “She improved our property, increased its value, and eliminated regrets from our lives.”

“We owe her big time,” Bella’s laughter filled the office.

Life will test us daily in everything we do. If you lose nothing in your test, learned something vital that improves your life, living, and mental health, don’t let regrets in. It will destroy everything. Learn from life, forgive, and move on.

Regrets are weapons. Weapons destroy. Forgiveness and common sense are tools. Tolls fix and improve! Improve your life for 2026 and onwards. Annelise Lords

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.