Valentine’s Day

Love. Many times over the years I thought I knew what love was. It was an affliction, an addiction. It was a time when I couldn’t be without that other person.

Or so I thought at the time.

Now I know what love means to me. It means being wrong and still caring, it means the world may still revolve under my feet but my world revolves around the one I love. It took me a long time to find that true love. I am one of the lucky ones, my wife loves me even when I am wrong. She loves the real me and can see through all my pain to the person I am inside.

And to think I almost let her go.

Now we share our love and our laughter. We share our fears, our pain, and sorrow. We can go to the depths and come out the other side. Stronger.

Valentine’s Day is the day we are supposed to show our loved ones how we feel. We should be showing them our love every day. I try, sometimes I fail. At least I try, Krista tries too.

Days like Valentine’s, Christmas, and birthdays always have ways of sneaking up on me. I don’t need a commercial holiday to prompt me to show how much I care. Sometimes it doesn’t hurt to have those moments when we stop and give a gift of ourselves and our love.

Yesterday when Brad and I left the mountain we both had a mission. Our first stop was a chocolate shop. Unfortunately, we are not the best at planning ahead and the shop was sold out of chocolates. In the modern world, we have Google, I searched for Chocolate shops near me and we found a place not far away. It was a perfect stop for procrastinating husbands. Flower Shop, and Chocolate shop all in the same mall. We both entered the small store that had hearts and chocolates displayed in the window. It was like striking gold; we found the treats we hoped would touch the hearts of our loved ones. Indeed, the chocolates were like striking gold, at least they cost as much if not more.

Next door was the flower shop, we walked in and were greeted with the floral bouquet of wondrous sights and smells. Again, we figured we had struck the mother lode.

To our dismay, the flowers displayed were all spoken for. In the new world we are living in, online sales have taken over. The girl working at the flower shop informed us we were too late. Although they appeared to have lots of amazing displays, they were all spoken for with their online orders.

We could still buy roses and tulips… again we paid the price of procrastination. The commercialization of Valentines was complete and we scrambled to come up with something that could wow the women we love. Brad got creative and made a bouquet that was unique and expressed his love. I bought a single rose for my wife and saw an amazing flowering plant. The permanence of the plant felt like the right choice for my honey. It was a poignant representation of how I feel about our love and lives together.

Valentines Day morning came slowly and we snuggled in close. Sunday morning came down like a comfortable pillow that’s shaped perfectly. On a Sunday Valentine’s morning, we held each other tight, willing the world to wait just a few more minutes.

We don’t need a commercial holiday to tell each other how we feel. Still it’s a good excuse to brighten our world with chocolates and flowers. Valentine’s Day with all the commercial hoopla gave us a chance to express our love.

To those that remain alone in these dark times, I would like to be able to share a bit of that love. But in the world of covid we can’t even share a hug. Instead I send everyone a virtual hug and a wish for them to find a small piece of love in their life.