Today is Valentine’s Day, or the feast of St. Valentine.  It is celebrated in many regions around the world but is not recognized in any country as a public holiday.  Through the centuries it has become a day associated with romantic love.  I have always been an incurably hopeless romantic.  This day has invariably been a disappointment for me I suppose because of my expectations.  It’s not the flowers or fancy restaurants, it’s the ROMANCE; the sentiment that is supposed to be behind all of it.  For the record, I think it this day should not be solely for one or the other; rather the couple.  I remember when I was in my late teens or early twenties crying a lot on this day.  The guy I was dating at the time either didn’t bother to even buy a card or he expected something that a good girl simply did not do.  Throughout all of it my folks always invited me to come and eat with them.  They truly wanted me but I was old enough by then to realize they needed their own time to just be with each other.  My father was a romantic.  When he was dating Mama he brought her fresh flowers every week.  Fiinally my Grandmother Maris asked him to stop because she said the house was overflowing.  He wrote Mama poetry often and for no reason.  I would see little notes on the refrigerator with hearts that he would leave for her after he’d gone to work.  She was adored and I often wonder if she was truly aware of it.  Certainly, she loved my father deeply.  But I think she became accustomed to how good he was to her.  Every Valentine’s Daddy would go to the grocery store and buy her a giant Russell Stover’s ruffled silk heart box full of candy.  But what I always loved was that he also bought a little one for me.  He would say they were for his two best girls and then wink.  He was devastatingly handsome and truly a good man.  This day reminds me of New Year’s in that I think it can be very difficult for people.  If you find yourself alone and reading this, know that someone out there loves you,  And, if you truly feel you have no one who loves you may I suggest you reach out and love others; it is the surest way for love to come back to you.  If it somehow doesn’t, I can promise you that rescuing an animal from certain death at a shelter will be the greatest love you will find on this earth.  Cat or dog, old or young; they KNOW.  And they will always be unconditionally loving and grateful to you because of it.  Of course there is always the love of our Creator, who knows you by name and knows all of your desires.  Love encompasses so much.  The American motivational speaker Denis Waitley said:

“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed.  Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.”

When my husband came home tonight he had gotten a long stem pink rose from work.  I asked him to give it to our little one.  Listening at the playroom door I heard, “For ME?  I never got flowers from a MAN before!”  Now Valentine’s for me is about the unending, overflowing love I have for my daughter.  From the second I saw her I loved her more than my own life, and I knew I had been struck by cupid.