Promises, Promises

Often we pay less attention to our interior spaces, and ignore adequate relationship communication, because of some promise one of us has made. Within the concept of a promise there's an element of controlling, fixing, regulating the unknown because the future is unknown. Sometimes the only way to ensure a promise is kept is to occlude a part of experiential reality; if I am not experiencing this thing, then no promise need be broken in response to it. This is usually a recipe for unhappiness, if not disaster, and someone somewhere once suggested it was better to never make a promise than face the social and spiritual repercussions of breaking a promise.

I rather think a promise should be nothing more than a declaration of earnest intent, a well recognized level of earnest intent, but better it were less than binding upon something so unknown as the future. Some time ago I felt the need to express my earnest dedication and eager devotion to my wife and eventually gave up on any binding schema related to a promise, contract, vow, pledge, etc. After I removed as much emphasis as I could upon future, I still used the word 'sworn' but used it only to describe the essential emotion in the present .

sworn

In this great thing of us,
our ever improvised
choreography,

I am sworn this day
to do all I may to love,
honor, adore you,

to cherish you dear,
dote without fear, to increase
your peace, your pleasure,

to follow your lead,
to listen, to heed, your joy,
your bliss, to treasure.