Love Is In The Air

Hmmmmm. Valentine's Day is this week. Time for some thoughts on love, I suppose.

Do you like Valentine's Day? My daughters do. They love to make the cards and sign their names, attach stickers or candy or something special. The nine year old has kept every card ever given to her. I suppose she always will. Someday it will make quite a scrapbook. The five year old helped write a poem for her cards this year- well, two poems, actually. We found the following in a book illustrated by Tommie DePaola, given to us by my mother:

Lilies are white
And rosemary's green.
When I am King
You shall be Queen.

She liked the simple and regal picture, but the poem wasn't quite suited to her purpose. So we altered it to go like this:

Rosemary's green
And lilies are white,
When I am Queen,
I'll make you a Knight.

Well, pretty good for the boys' cards, but it wouldn't do for the girls. We tried this instead:

Roses are red
And violets are blue.
When I am Queen,
I'll make you one, too!

Not bad for Kindergarten. There's been quite a bit of excitement this week as the preparations were being made for Friday's parties. One of them said that Valentine's Day is her favorite time of the school year because you get to make everyone so happy. I concurred.

But I remember times when Valentine's Day was far from my favorite time. It was awkward, even painful when I was younger. Did those boys really mean all those things that were printed on their cards? Oh, I hope not! How embarrassing for us all! And why do I need to get Valentines from all the girls, too? Sheesh. I had so little imagination.

Fortunately, I outgrew all that. I remember some really good Valentine's Days in college. Nothing over the top, you understand. Just enough positive feedback to keep things going when relationships would have otherwise succumbed to the February Funk. It seemed I always called my mom in despair in early February, only to have things take a turn for the better two weeks later. There were some good mix tapes, some flowers where it was certainly the thought that counted, some bravely honest cards. Maybe even a dance or two. Dinner, as I recall.

And now? Now I find that I must make room for two kinds of celebrations in my heart. One is for the kids- red things, heart-shaped things, little notes in their lunch boxes, decorations- and the other is for my own true love. Cards are a good place to begin, hand-made or purchased, but with a heartfelt note inside. Sometimes that's all we get around to giving, sometimes there's chocolate and flowers- or a plant once, which he still has. I do feel a little silly about the meagerness of the symbols I use to express my love. It really should be something huge, significant, and special. On the other hand, the recipient is not one for big public displays, so maybe it's just as well. There are some good ideas floating around out there, and there's still time to whip something up....

Here's a poem I like to help get you in the spirit of things. It's called The Pomegranate and the Big Crowd, and I would post it here but it's copyrighted. Go over here and read it. It's fun.

Love,
Maren