The sort of promises I’m referring to here are more what you would call vows; the type you make when you get married for example. Have you ever wondered why many people find these vows so difficult to adhere to, and why (if we continue with marriage as the example here) so many marriages end in divorce these days. The answer, quite simply, is because the human race as a collective, still does not really know what love is and therefore puts conditions on it. We ask of those we claim to love what love itself would never ask of another.

Our very nature as a species is that of evolution. The individual soul experiences life in the world so it may know itself in its own experience. Or, so it may know experientially what it otherwise only knows as concept. It is these experiences of life that instigate the growth and evolution of the individual soul. As the soul evolves its perceptions and outlooks change. This means that our very nature is that of change; we do not stand still. Love would never ask another to restrict and impose limitations on itself by not changing when the very nature of life is change. A vow made today may be relevant to the person you are today. But six months, a year, five years or ten years down the line, you are not the same person; you have evolved, therefore your vow may no longer serve who you are and who you are choosing to be. In this world of relativity there is no right and wrong there is only that which serves you and that which doesn’t; right and wrong are simply relative and a matter of individual opinion.

Instead of expecting someone to “love, honour and obey”, what about “I honour your right to explore and express your individuality and I also honour your right to continually recreate yourself in the grandest version of the greatest vision you ever held about yourself”. This would be love in action, not superficial love with conditions. If this principle was applied more often to relationships of all kinds the world would be a much better place.