This is a post to celebrate getting away. After SO many weeks and months of cold winter and working from home, it seemed like the right time to get away. My wife and I have had a favorite weekend get-away place for many years now, and even though we left home late, we were settled into our room at the Lake Bluff Inn and Suites in South Haven, before our usual bed time. The pleasure was in knowing that we weren’t going to have to get up early and there were no expectations when we did.

We learned the art of weekending years ago, when raising children and being busy with our jobs left little time to do more than one short vacation a year. That left us only weekends to do a get-away for ourselves. Eventually we realized that leaving the kids for one or two nights was achievable and if we didn’t go far, we could easily deal with issues if we were needed. For us, that meant being within a couple of hours of home. There are a few tourist towns a couple of hours away and we fell in love with South Haven.

At first this was about our anniversary or other special occasion, but in time we realized it was the perfect couple’s therapy. Getting outside our usual four walls and routine for a even a couple of days helped us reset. Perspective is valuable and sometimes seeing your challenges and frustrations from outside the sphere of your daily life can help provide it.

As a young couple with a houseful of kids, we couldn’t afford a lakeside suite with a jacuzzi every time we escaped for a weekend, but as soon as we could, we determined it was worth it. But even the bargain room at a Holiday Inn Express or local B’n’B works. The value is in breaking the routine and intentionally making space to remember what life was like before children and before the cares of work and a mortgage and the other pressures of life started to weigh on us.

So what do we do when we get away? Walk on the beach. Shop a little. Eat out. Let the housekeepers make the bed. Drink a little. Sometimes it’s almost nothing at all. Walking the grounds at the resort or getting ice cream in the heat of the summer is an escape. Sometimes the key is in simply not doing the things you normally do and letting everything come as it may. Whatever your style of relaxation is, park the lawn mower (or the snow shovel) and make a little time to weekend.