What can you promise?

“I will be with you forever.…” These words are what many of us long to hear from our partner. They offer the picture of sweetness and safety for eternity. They also bind our future selves in a debt we have no right to undertake on their behalf.

We are always growing and changing our values and perceptions. To promise that our future self will view our life in the same way we do, is to assume a future self that has not grown and evolved beyond our ability to see. To pledge our future self to commitments that may run contrary to it’s needs and values is unfair, providing our future self with the choice to break our pledge to honor their own truth or be a prisoner of our promise.

It is more real to promise our partner that we will change and that as we do we will stay in communication. That we are committed to win/win or no deal. That there are many things that are more important than protecting our relationship and that quality is as important as duration. 

Action: What can you promise? Write this down and give this to your partner as a gift.

Contents

Cresting the Waves:

A guide to sailing through life on

Relation-Ships

Dane E. Rose