My wife and I have been married just over two years and we are expecting our first child in September of 2015. We dated long distance, literally from opposite sides of the globe for over 3 years before getting married. However, this was the first Valentines day on which we were actually in the same place at the same time. It was wonderful, primarily because neither of us is sentimental about the day and so rather than allowing ourselves to be bullied by popular perception and the media into spending a fortune on one another to prove what we should both already know without any doubts, we used the holiday as an excuse to spend the day together, enjoying one another's company and heaping affections upon one another to compensate for the lack of chocolates and roses...
Valentines is an interesting holiday is it not? If your relationship is treated as special by you and your significant other, just once or twice each year (Valentines & Anniversary), then I would venture to guess that it probably won't last, and it probably should not, for both of your sakes. Each day of your lives together should be a celebration of your union. Let's face it folks, it really isn't that hard to do one little something every day, just to let the other person know, without words or money, that they are the most important person in your life!
Money is great for paying bills and setting aside for rainy days. However, it can never take the place of a great (full body) massage after a hard day at work, or a self-prepared gourmet meal for the two of you to enjoy together, or anything where you have gone out of your way, exerted physical energy, and taken your time away from the TV, the computer, the smartphone, the phone, the job, the neighbors, the friends, the children and everything and everybody else, and invested that time and effort into doing something for no other reason than to make the one you love, feel happy and cared for. What are roses compared to that? Or chocolates or any other material thing?
There are an incredible number of time thieves in our daily lives. Dozens, if not hundreds of things that steal a minute here and five minutes there, until you find yourself with no time left for yourself or the one you love! It leaves us crawling into bed way too late, more often than nought and wondering as we drift off to sleep where all the time goes.
The best way to remove time thieves from your life is to simplify it with some basic rules. When the two of you are together, and the day is done, you should both commit to turning off your cell phones and staying off of the computers and away from the TV until you have both spent a minimal amount of time together, talking and enjoying one another's company like you did when you first met. Time thieves steal more than our time! They steal our relationships and our perspective by redefining our priorities. Our priorities should never revolve around the latest Facebook game, or the last tweet from our followers or the football game or whatever else it is that we allow ourselves to obsess about that ultimately holds zero value for the quality of our lives.
Valentines is an interesting holiday is it not? If your relationship is treated as special by you and your significant other, just once or twice each year (Valentines & Anniversary), then I would venture to guess that it probably won't last, and it probably should not, for both of your sakes. Each day of your lives together should be a celebration of your union. Let's face it folks, it really isn't that hard to do one little something every day, just to let the other person know, without words or money, that they are the most important person in your life!
Money is great for paying bills and setting aside for rainy days. However, it can never take the place of a great (full body) massage after a hard day at work, or a self-prepared gourmet meal for the two of you to enjoy together, or anything where you have gone out of your way, exerted physical energy, and taken your time away from the TV, the computer, the smartphone, the phone, the job, the neighbors, the friends, the children and everything and everybody else, and invested that time and effort into doing something for no other reason than to make the one you love, feel happy and cared for. What are roses compared to that? Or chocolates or any other material thing?
There are an incredible number of time thieves in our daily lives. Dozens, if not hundreds of things that steal a minute here and five minutes there, until you find yourself with no time left for yourself or the one you love! It leaves us crawling into bed way too late, more often than nought and wondering as we drift off to sleep where all the time goes.
The best way to remove time thieves from your life is to simplify it with some basic rules. When the two of you are together, and the day is done, you should both commit to turning off your cell phones and staying off of the computers and away from the TV until you have both spent a minimal amount of time together, talking and enjoying one another's company like you did when you first met. Time thieves steal more than our time! They steal our relationships and our perspective by redefining our priorities. Our priorities should never revolve around the latest Facebook game, or the last tweet from our followers or the football game or whatever else it is that we allow ourselves to obsess about that ultimately holds zero value for the quality of our lives.
