Get a Life. Seriously.

I got to give some pleasant direction to a sponsee the other day: HAVE SOME FUN!

She was upset because her husband was having some friends over to play pool. He stocked the whole refrigerator with beer. He bought a bottle of whiskey. She just knew that she was going to go home and be sarcastic.

“Is there anything you’ve been wanting to go out and do?” I asked.

“No,” she said. “Why should I be run out of my own house?”

I wasn’t suggesting that, I explained. I only thought that she should look at this as an opportunity. Her husband was having fun with his friends. Why shouldn’t she look at this as an opportunity to do something fun herself that she wouldn’t normally do because her husband wouldn’t enjoy it?

If she didn’t want to go out, I wondered if there were a spot inside the house where she go to do something enjoyable and engaging.

“The idea,” I said, “is to do something so enjoyable and so engrossing that you’re not worried about what you’re husband is doing or whether or not he’s drinking any of that beer himself.”

I told her when I needed a lift, I liked to watch Ann of Green Gables or the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice (Colin Firth is the only Mr. Darcy, as far as I’m concerned) and eat a pint of chocolate almond or coffee ice cream. That’s my idea of spiritual comfort food.

She liked that idea. She thought she might rent something along the lines of a romantic comedy. She particularly liked the part about the ice cream.

“I guess I always tend to cope by working my way though problems, but it’s okay to take it easy sometimes,” she said.

“Yes!” I agreed.

Inside, I was thinking how she was so much like me. Taking life and everything in it so darn seriously. Sometimes the best thing to do is just to lighten up and have a good time.