Love Me Do
“The most precious gift we can give anyone is our attention. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.” - Thich Nhat Hanh
We made it to February. YAY for us. Personally, I have always found February to be a particularly brutal month to get through. It’s been cold and snowy for several months now. My initial love for winter hibernation (sleeping, watching a lot of Netflix, never leaving my house, wearing pjs for days on end) seems to look more like seasonal depression than cozy hibernation. In February things get even colder than I ever thought possible and I am real tired of my car being covered in a layer of snow/ice/dirt grime.
Luckily, February also happens to be the host for one of my favorite holidays: Valentine’s day. I know, I know. Valentine’s Day is just another forced consumer holiday made up to make us all feel inadequate, guilty, and pressures us to participate lest you admit to being void of romantic love. Not to mention, if you happen to be single (the horror!!) it only enhances whatever loneliness or dejectedness you might already be feeling. In the context of American consumerism, it is kind of horrible- like all our American holidays whose true meaning always gets co-opted by all the STUFF.
Hear me out though.
I really like to use Valentine’s Day to expand and contemplate a deeper definition of Love. We focus so much on the importance of romantic love but there are soooo many different and equally important ways to be in love in this life. Perhaps Valentine’s Day could be also be about celebrating all the different kinds of people, places, and things we love as well as the varying ways we demonstrate it. Too often, we associate the word “love” with a just a feeling. I am not sure a feeling alone does enough to justify the potential of the word. I think love should be viewed not only as a feeling but also as an action. To really love someone or something is to feel and act lovingly. Love without loving action is just an empty feeling. Let’s use this February to embrace loving action. Loving action could be sharing a coffee with a respected co-worker, creating a card for someone special, kayaking a beloved river, walking a beautiful hike with your eyes wide open, making a commitment to compost, picking up trash in your neighborhood, making your lover their favorite cake, playing a love song you wrote on your guitar, reciting a prayer or poem, braiding your best friend’s hair, or making a pot of soup for a sick family member.
We would have a deeper healthier relationship with love if we embrace an expanded definition that included infusing all our actions with loving kindness. We need not be romantically involved to express deep love or participate in a love themed holiday. Look around, find someone or something that you’d like to celebrate with an act of mindful, loving kindness and do it. There are literally endless possibilities for love.
I am always a huge fan of making things as an expression of love. Here are some Pinterest ideas for handmade Valentine’s day goodies:
How to write a love poem (without barfing)
How to make valentines pom pom monsters
Chocolate dipped strawberry cookies
and this one for the birds:
