Yesterday was a day of great celebration in my classroom. Cookies, heart shaped boxes of Ghiradelli chocolates, bags of m & m's, and psychedelic cards were in abundance to the point of excess. I closed the day feeling a little sick.
Yet just the right valentine, from just the right person, gives a perfect lift. How grateful I am for the one above, tucked into my hand at the end of a day spent at the hospital, in my mother's perfect writing. It is simple. It is elegant. It is lovely, just as she is.
I'm not one for soppy poems, for extravagant bouquets, for mounds of rich chocolate. I resent the "obligation" flowers and sweets I see stacked at the check-out lines of grocery stores. Far better, I think, is the heartfelt note all by itself.
There was a year, several in fact, when I had lost my first husband and faced Valentine's Day feeling worse than dreadful. It seemed everywhere I turned, I saw couples holding hands, couples kissing, advertisements for diamond jewelry in heart shapes. Those things are extra piercing when we are alone. Some years are like that.
But joy comes in the morning. A new day will come, a day when in giving love away, we receive it back. Love is circular like that. I find it has a way of going around, sometimes pulling away from me, sometimes drawing near.
And so a note for you, dear blogging friends: wherever you are today, may you find an element of love in some measure. Whether it's from a person, a pet, or even a favorite book, I hope you rest in the warmth of something you love.
xoxo
