Revisiting the Agreements
I walked into the house of a neighbor and on her kitchen counter was a giant frame with The Four Agreements written in it. It wasn’t a Hallmark purchase, it was a printout, carefully placed in the frame and front and center in the middle of the house. It was a statement of the obvious: Self Work Done Here.
I read The Four Agreements years ago — twice in fact — and found it to be directly on-target with my beliefs. I gobbled up the follow-up book and the workbook but The Mastery of Love and the Toltec Teachings fell on deaf ears for me. They were abstract, hard to grasp. And anyway, by then, Oprah and half the free self-help world were touting the writing of Don Miguel Ruiz. It turned me off. In fact, I thought that by definition, it was counter-intuitive to the Four Agreements.
The neighbor’s kitchen, though. That got me. These folks are cool, wealthy, beautiful. They’re IN. In fact, I’d bet my shirt they were never anything short of SuperCool. To see the Agreements written in their kitchen brought me a new perspective on them: depth.
I’ve gained a re-interest in The Four Agreements. Reading it over again (in a short afternoon), I remembered that not only did I believe in the Agreements, but that they were entire avenues of myself that I have neglected for a long, long time. There is work to be done in the realm of being true to my word, be the person that I know I am. And so here I revisit my Agreements. Maybe I’ll print them out and put them in my kitchen. I could use the reminder.
The Four Agreements
- Be Impeccable With Your Word.
- Don’t Take Anything Personally.
- Don’t Make Assumptions.
- Always Do Your Best.
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