Values and Vows

When I first read this week’s Simplify Your Life challenge to come up with your top 5 personal values I thought ooh, that sounds tricky, where would I begin? But as I thought about it, and started writing words down, a funny thing happened. I noticed that many of the words were words from our marriage vows that we wrote ourselves in 2004. When we wrote those vows we thought about what sort of a life we wanted to have together and although at the time I didn’t think of it as ‘defining our values’ it really was. So, here are the vows with the value words bolded:

I promise to love you,

to nourish, respect and support you.

To share our thoughts and dreams and

to face life’s challenges with patience and humour.

I choose now to stay this path with you,

to travel with you through the adventures of life,

loving you at my side.

To narrow it down to a top 5 I chose:

1. Love – really, that has to underpin everything.

2. Respect – for each other, for family, for others, for the world.

3. Patience – often borne out as stubborness and perserverance. Particularly important around young children.

4. Humour – life is more fun with humour even when things are not going so well. Don’t take yourself too seriously.

5. Share – share thoughts, share dreams, share belongings, share events, share with others, share experiences.

This post is my response to week 2 of the Simplify Your Life challenge.