Eastbound MARTA train, partially filled with weary day workers on their way home. It’s a familiar sight, something that grounds me. People are staring at their phones, listening to music, and looking out the windows at the passing urban landscape. It is a routine that I’ve selected to be mine, not something I am forced into.
This weekend I changed the routine. With my partner in crime, Laura, we visited Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic. We read, talked a lot, ate decent food, adventured, swam, napped, had sex, and read some more. We gained headspace. We gained perspective on our lives and our choices. Our biggest collective take away was, we need more headspace like this. We need to break our routines, make choices outside the walls of our routine because that is where we will thrive. We can live OUR ideal life if we want to. We can/should/will make more money and this income will give us the opportunity to spend more time with our kids, create routines that we enjoy, donate more money to causes we believe in, buy my mom a car without flinching, and adventure with family and friends.
Routines are great if you enjoy them and if they bring you the life you desire. I’ve learned enough from my current routines to know that I’m relying on outside forces to change them. It’s my job to identify what I desire and drive myself towards them. This train, the one I’ve been on countless times won’t get me there.
At Kensington.
Hello, I am Shelton. 