Is Valentine’s Day Only About Romantic Love???

Happy Love Day y’all…

I really like the idea of Valentine’s Day…

In speaking to a few people this morning, I realized that some do not ‘believe’ in V day and will tell you so immediately!! I also realized that my interpretation might be a little different than the usual. I am not terribly interested in the commercial side of the day – if I get flowers or we go to dinner I love that…if we stay home and do what we always do with our kids, I love that and if he is flying and we can only chat by phone I love that too…

P’s take on Valentine’s Day is that he loves me every day and shows me that he does so do we really need a V day – and I get that…I try to show him and my kids, family and friends etc. my love as often as I can ( I also tell them that I love them alllll the time)….

I definitely do not need a particular day to feel or give love BUT… I really like the idea of having a day that causes me to pause and reflect on the different types of love and the different ways that I give and receive love (this of course is a personal thing and is different for everyone).

For me, I have never felt that Valentine’s Day is only about romantic love – in fact when I was single, I celebrated it just as enthusiastically as I do now. I think that love is every where if you slow down and look. For me it is in the simplest of things –

1. I feel my kids’ love in their hugs and kisses (even if the lips are smeared with peanut butter).
2. I am a romantic and love everything that goes along with that BUT, I feel P’s love in the thoughtful things that he does for me every day out of the blue to make my life easier or to let me know that he is always thinking about me.
3. Yesterday I had to go to my older daughter’s school in the middle of the day (yup, to show some love and drop off her track stuff that she had forgotten that morning, sigh) and saw my friend’s son who has some challenges that they are working on. As he was walking by I had to stop and take a closer look – he was literally beaming, walking with his bag, head held high – I couldn’t help but feel his happiness. I felt love in that moment and when she and I spoke about it later I felt love again.
4. I feel love for strangers as one human being to another. I feel love for the parents who are mourning the loss of their children in the Parkland shooting one year ago today. I don’t know them and probably will never meet any of them but as I watch their interviews on TV I feel love.
5. I feel love when I watch or read about people who are trying to do good in the world, trying to help others less fortunate than themselves through awareness and sacrifice.
6. I feel love when I see random acts of kindness especially among strangers (this is one of my favourites).
7. I feel love for my dogs when I get home and they are so excited to see me even if I just left a few minutes ago (I will admit that sometimes the result of their love is muddy paw prints on my clothes or a cold nose in my palm)..
8. I don’t only feel love for people – I  love my work which is one of my passions, I love our home, I love music, I love cricket….

My list could go on and on but my point is (yes I do have one) … I think we all feel these things, you may use another word for it, call it something else other than love, you may show your love or feel love in ways that are different to how I experience love but at the end of the day I think this is what connects us all as beings – I didn’t use the word human in deference to our four legged friends (ummm not to be offensive to birds or fish or anything #politicallycorrect …).

I like to use February 14th as a day  to stop and think about what it means to give love and the many ways that I can do that. I try to concentrate more on showing and giving love rather than receiving because not only does it make me feel really good inside but once I put love out there it will always come back to me. It also makes me feel as if I am doing my part to bring some kind of balance to our world especially now in this crazy global climate!!!

So there you have it…my thoughts on the ‘L’ word…

How do you love?