through a glass darkly

Often, I think about the past with a sense of regret - like, why didn't I do this instead of that? Things would have gone much better if I had done 'this'. Such thoughts are pointless. 

This morning I thought of something different. I thought that, if it was possible to make any change at all to the past, I would be kinder, more understanding, more considerate. I can think of a number of situations that came up where that would have made a real difference. 

In some ways I'm just talking about maturity, so, in a way, being like that wasn't open to me at that time because I wasn't mature yet.