A CREED is defined as “any system of principles or beliefs, a statement of belief, or the ethical standards that guide one’s life.” In other words, a creed is a commitment to one’s beliefs and values.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT

Wait. You’re giving me an assignment? Something I actually have to do, that you aren’t going to do for me while I sit back and watch? Yep. You got it. If you’ve not already done this, it’s time to get a pad and pencil and start writing down your life creed.

ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, IT WILL HAPPEN

Never doing this is like living and dying without a written will. The State already has a “will” written for you. If you live and die without a your own plan, it automatically kicks one in for you.

The State’s plan for you most likely will not resemble what you want your life and death to look like, where you want your material possessions to go, or how you want to be remembered by family members, colleagues, friends. Nor will it express the real meaning and purpose of your having lived. This is the price one pays for an ‘unplanned life.’

On the other hand, letting someone you don’t know and who doesn’t know you write the outcome of your story may be just the ticket. A way of saying, “I don’t care.”

YES, YOU DO!

Of course you care!

So what are the beliefs that are important to you? What principles have governed your life and you’d like these to pass on to your family and friends? It can be one line or one page or one chapter. It can be a series of “I believe” statements.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote:

“To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and

the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and

endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in

others; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a

healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played

and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life

has breathed easier because you have lived—this is to have succeeded.”

Walt Whitman, from the preface to Leaves of Grass: 

This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body

IT REALLY IS WORTH DOING

Okay, your assignment is to come up with your own personal creed. Not just a goal, but a creed. What is important to you. What laws and beliefs govern your life? Your creed will address the spiritual, the personal, the moral, and the educational values you hold dear.’’

It’s a worthwhile spiritual exercise. So let’s get started. And if you don’t mind sharing, let me know how you do.