The Real Valentine's Day

(Posted February 13, 2020)

"If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love." - Maya Angelou

Just about everyone knows what day Valentine’s Day is -- on February 14. It literally is the time of the year, the first few weeks of February, where even nature starts to wake up and feel amorous. If you look carefully, you will note that male and female birds begin to draw closer to one another, with one bird even feeding the other. Out there in the trees, an invisible dance is starting to take place, deep within each tree. All of those nutrients that a tree stored in the fall in its roots is now making its way up, deep inside the trunk, preparing for the first warm days ahead.

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And then the human ritual of Valentine’s Day is starting to take place. Cards. Candy. Even a romantic evening out. A few “I love yous” tossed about here and there. And then, it’s back to business on February 15.

But I want to tell you when the REAL Valentine’s Day takes place. The REAL Valentines Day happens not on the 14th, but days later when you pick up her socks off the floor without making a federal case out of it, and she quietly puts the cap back on a toothpaste tube squeezed in the middle.

The REAL Valentines Day happens months from now, when you’re trying to cool down your temper after you’ve both had a serious “disagreement.” Instead of sarcasm, you choose to remember and respect this person you love.

The REAL Valentines Day happens, not in ten days, but in 10,000 days, when he has less hair,  you have more pounds, and no one will mistake you for Millennials. That may be the time when the doctor gives her the diagnosis no one wants to hear as you sit beside her. And all you hear in your head is, “I can’t lose her -- I love her.”

The REAL Valentines Day happens some 40 years from now, when the mists of memory loss mean that he doesn’t know whose hand he’s holding, or remember your name. But when you look at him, you still see the person you love.

And it is then you know that nothing, not even death, can break you apart. That’s when you realize that love - real love - is the Springtime warmth running deep inside that never leaves two hearts that have nourished one another. May you find and know such love in your life.