People say romance is gone. Gone after you’ve had kids and/or are raising them; gone after the relationship dwindles or just plain gone is the kindle and spark that once got you together. Why?

I am no expert, but I believe I am a true romantic.  I cheer for the underdog and can’t wait for the end of the story when that sizzle of romantic tension breaks and they have that first kiss.  A kiss is powerful….Ahhhh.

Sidebar:  I think I get this from my grandmother Amelia.  She was the oldest of 5, her sister Anna right behind her.  I am not quite sure how the story began but the bottom line was she met my Uncle Tony first.  She began writing him letters and signing her sister’s name. Her thoughts and feelings came through to him and he soon fell in love with my Aunt Anna aka Amelia the ghost writer.  They married and had three boys. I spent a great deal of my early childhood with my grandmother and her stories are still with me.  I’d like to think that romantic gene came from her.

So, this morning I wrote in lipstick on my husband’s mirror, “You’re slipping” along with a heart.  I wrote this because the past few weeks we have really been clicking but lately he has drifted back off into stressful work mode.  In 1986 after our first date, I called Phoebe’s Florist and had flowers sent to his office.  He worked with a friend of mine who threatened to punch him because he thought perhaps the gesture implied an illicit night.  Not so much.  I will say that very night, when I held his hand crossing the street to The Gingerman, I knew that I would marry him. (I sent him flowers again this week)

Should I thank Christian Grey for inspiring me with some random acts of romance? I am without strong opinion on the Fifty Shades of Grey other than when I read it, around the sexual explicitness and drama I found the romance and sexual tension between them; the way they emailed each other in that undertone of tongue and cheek; his protectiveness, albeit creepy and stalker-ish left me cheering that he would become the character I hoped for and I was not disappointed.  Would others say, “how do you see that?”  Perhaps.  But isn’t that the way an author would want it?  Each reader gathers the storyline along with their own personal storyline and conjures up the images of the characters in the way they see fit.

Romance is not dead and I will not let it take a permanent hiatus.  Remember why you feel so madly in love with your partner. Remember why those Sunday afternoons at the lake sleeping is sun together felt so good.  Step over the piles of laundry and bills waiting to be paid and kiss that person they way you did years ago.

(when I am in my car too long, this is what I think about)