What Could We Have Done Better?

When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once? Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life? (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 87)

Recriminations come easily
but there's a softer, gentler way.
I don't have to flagellate myself
for slips yesterday or ten years past.
I can examine, analyze, critique —
gently, as I would for another —
and make today what I would have had
yesterday to be.