Monday, February 14, 2011

“A loving relationship is one in which the loved one is free to be himself—to laugh with me, but never at me; to cry with me, but never because of me; to love life, to love himself, to love being loved. Such a relationship is based upon freedom and can never grow in a jealous heart.”

Leo Buscaglia

A friend of mine made me aware of this quote today. I found it in keeping with my beliefs and appropriate for the holiday, so I thought I’d share it.

There are many who do not celebrate Valentine’s Day or feel ultra alone on this holiday—more so than on other days. While comforting some friends today who felt this way, I shared how, to me, Valentine’s day is about considering those who we hold dear in our hearts, not in focusing on those who hold us dear in theirs.

So often, folks get caught up in the commercialism of this holiday or feel compelled to force feelings of love, as if this is the only day of the year when feelings should be felt or expressed. Because of this, many boycott the holiday all together. Me? To be honest, there have been years when I’ve gotten caught up in the commercialism—hard not to. But not this year. This year, I opted to keep things simple—a card for each person with a heart-felt hand-written noted inside, expressing how I feel. Yes, doing the card and heart-felt not on this very day was contrived by a date on the calendar, but, that’s okay, for it allowed me to take a moment in time to reflect on how dear each of those individuals are to me and caused me to want to express such.