A Romance Primer

“Love may make the world go round, but it is romantic love that makes the ride worthwhile”.- Gary Godek
Last week I made the assertion that romance is easy, fun and necessary to a healthy relationship and that being romantic is a key skill to pass on to your children. This week I hope to pass on a few ideas you can use to get those creative juices flowing. The following ideas are all tame but fun, for a list of spicier ideas email me and I will be happy to forward one to you.
To get started you can take a crayon and write short notes on the eggs in your refrigerator such as “I © U” or “143”. Along these same lines, use driveway chalk to write a short message in BIG letters on your driveway so your spouse reads it when they pull in. Buy one daisy and attach a note that says: “She/He loves me- she/he loves me not”, however stack the deck in your favor and make sure the flower has an odd number of petals.
Write a love letter. If you have difficulty look up the Sullivan Ballou letter on the Internet, it remains one of the most romantic, and tragic, letters ever written. You can find it at http://www.ids.net/~tandem/sullivan.htm .
Make three lists to give your spouse: “Ten reasons I fell in love with you”, “Ten reasons I still love you” and “Ten ways you turn me on”.
This idea is just too cool. Make a series of “coupons” the size of a chocolate bar and insert the coupons in the wrapper next to the chocolate bar then re-glue the wrapper with a glue stick. Ensure you do not get glue on the chocolate.
In keeping with summer’s arrival, find, borrow or rent a rowboat. Get a blanket, wine, glasses, cheese, strawberries and chocolate in a basket and row to a secluded spot on one of our local lakes.
Hide one line sticky notes in your spouse’s car. Over the sun visor, in the trunk, on the steering wheel, you get the idea.
Go parking. If you have forgotten how to “park”, ask a teenager for an explanation.
Book a weekend at a bed and breakfast; there are a number of them locally. Use the opportunity to take a long walk and really LISTEN to your spouse. This is a fantastic time to review your goal sheets with each other. To find one try www.bedandbreakfast.com or www.InnCrawler.com .
Many of these ideas came from the book “1001 Romantic Ideas” by Gregory Godek. For additional ideas and help try www.lovingyou.com or www.rom101.com .
Remember the old axiom, “Time is money”? Well it is a LIE, time is NOT money! You can make money but you can’t create time, you only get what you get so make sure you are spending your time on people and activities according to your life priorities. The Italian poet Torquato Tasso said, “Any time that is not spent on love is wasted”.