take the whole phial, slowly, against the side of the tongue. name the small thing aloud — the unsaid sentence, the wrong turn, the door not held — and add, with the same breath, what one would have done instead. do not amend the memory. amend the present by doing the corrected thing, once, in any nearby form: hold the next door, say the next kind word, take the next right turn.
ingredients
- one named regret, said aloud
- the alternative version, in the same breath
- a small corrected act, performed today
- two warm breaths through the nose
- a dried flower, the kind one walked past
small regrets compound when stored. take the dose; do not keep the phial.
see the memory, the errata, the palimpsest; the larger remedy is on the next shelf.