Values

i made a list of my values this evening as part of a therapeutic exercise. I’m sure it is incomplete, but here is what I wrote:

1. Love
   Acceptance
   Dignity
   Respect
   Forgiveness
   Kindness
2. Honesty
   Humility
   Equanimity
   Integrity
   Faithfulness
3. Service
   Discipline
4. Intelligence
   Wit
   Curiosity

I put them into four groups representing qualities of the heart (1), qualities of spirit (2), values in action (3), and qualities of the mind (4). I’m sure this could be expanded and/or refined endlessly, but this works for me right now.

This is aspiration, not observation.

I define integrity as saying what I mean and doing what I say. That is a very simple precept, but in practice it is so very narrow a line to walk and so easy to step off of it. I run afoul of everything on my list somehow, but that is perhaps what it means to be a profoundly flawed and fallible human being. The list remains the benchmark against which my intent, and certainly my every act, may be judged in the moment and at the end of each day. The extent to which I close my day without the angry swarm of bumblebees in my head and find sleep easily is a measure of the freedom from the tyranny of my impulses, appetites, and emotional states I have maintained.