Turning the what ifs into what can still be is a lesson for everyone

What if? It’s a very lucky person who gets to live their life without having to ask themselves this question. How can two small words carry so such weight? Ruminating on what could have been can destroy your peace of mind. It can pin you to the past, stop you from moving onto better things, and from seeing the good around you.

Indeed for some people, like folk singer Vashti Bunyan, it is easier to bury the “what ifs” than contemplate their painful past.

A rising folk star in the 60s, with the backing of Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, Bunyan should have gone all the way. Instead, her debut album failed to catch fire and she retreated from the world to lick her wounds.

In a moving interview with P.S. arts writer Murray Scougall (pages 6&7), the mum of three recounts how for over 30 years she turned her back on music, not even picking up a guitar for fear of triggering deeply buried feelings of regret.

But her story is ultimately one of hope because, incredibly, the songs she put out into the world as a 20-something struck a chord with a new generation and she was given a second chance to pursue her dreams in her 50s.

She tells us: “It was only when I did come back to it that I realised how much I had missed it and grieved for it.”

Bunyan has made me think about “what ifs” in a different way. Instead wasting time wondering what could have been, maybe we should be asking ourselves what is still possible.