Try something new - or a new way of trying something old!

Back to school.

I have to admit when our children were in school my wife and I could hardly wait. This sign that the end of summer was near did not bother us at all. (Don't you love the Staples commercial?)

Back to school always felt like we were back to the habits and schedules which made life normal and for some tolerable. While routine is important to maximize your use of time, routine is the killer of romance and therefore the killer of marriages. How many of you fall into this trap? Dinner, kids sports events, kids cleaned up and put to bed, relax in front of TV or computer, go to bed separately and one is asleep by the time the other arrives? Is that the normal you want, the routine that makes life easier?    

When I travel without Pat, usually before the wheels are up, I can tell whether the person beside me is living an epic or a tragedy. I think there are only the two choices. An epic is when all you encounter is new and exciting and, even if you have done it 1000 times before, it brings you joy. Everything else is a tragedy. You do not have to be sad to be living a tragedy, in my view it is the absence of joy which is tragic. Marriages which have fallen into the rut of doing things which need to be done and have lost the playfulness we used to have are boring, and lead to wandering interests where we try to find joy. Unfortunately, that is generally with another person.   The summer offers us the chance to be different as schedules are changed. Just take a look at the number of babies born in March and April.

This year when the kids go back to school even if they are not your kids, do not fall back into the same fall habits. Try something new or a new way of doing something old but what ever that something is remember if you love on purpose you will feel more love and more joy and your life will become an epic.