A cold, rainy morning, and another Valentine's Day is coming up. This is just the kind of weather I like, it makes me reminiscent. Thank you to boyfriends past who taught me to believe in love stories and love songs.
Years ago, my sister and I had Valentine dates with our boyfriends; hers arrived with a big heart-shaped box filled with candy. A few minutes later mine arrived with a big heart-shaped box filled with candy. We attached a great deal of importance to whose heart-shaped box was bigger. She married her boyfriend. I tossed my boyfriend a short time later. The boxes were the same, the boyfriends quite different.
I don't think of Valentine's Day in the same way as when I was younger. As a child, my favorite love story was "Cinderella." When I was 16 all the love songs on the radio were playing just for me. Nowadays I sing love songs to my grandkids and make sure they get lovey gifts in the mail. First Husband and I try to remember to exchange cards. When you've been married approximately 400 years, some of the sparkle is bound to have disappeared. But I still love love.
These days there is much division in the world. I'm not giving away a big secret by saying that, we all know it's true. But trust, faith and love are so much more important, and worth working for. Take love where you can, and give it everywhere. One of the best ways to get (and give) love is to get a dog. A dog is trusting, faithful and full of love, and I am thrilled when I walk into a room and my dogs hop up and down just because they see me. So, I give it right back. I don't hop up and down, but the feeling is mutual, and I make sure they know it.
Find something to love - a person, an animal, an idea, a cause. You will never regret it.