Choosing traditions

There are three constants in life… change, choice and principles.
– Stephen Covey

I am a really big tradition person. I love the consistency they provide to an ever changing life. I know that traditions themselves change and adapt, but they still anchor us.

I was really worried for our first anniversary that we got one shot to set up traditional anniversary things that we would do and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what those things would be that we would carry on for the rest of our marriage. Which was a little silly. Big huge elaborate things can make good traditions, but the largeness of them complicates them. Some of the best traditions are the small ones.

Yesterday as we spent time in the temple remembering our wedding and reflecting on everything the last three years have brought I was glad that the temple is part of our anniversary tradition.

Brett played the piano for me again and we danced to our song in the living room.

Some years we might be more elaborate than that. But for all my worry two years ago, I think we’ve inadvertently chosen some pretty good anniversary traditions. And the fun thing is, all three of those didn’t start with our first anniversary but actually started at our wedding.