She Explains: The Value of Celebrating Love

A late post, obviously. But then again, celebrating love can be any day and every day of everyone's life!

Valentines Day. Awh. The day when lovers are forced to find time for a date or to do something special. The day when the world stops and turns red in the face, making heart pumping, hormone inducing, brain squishing and tonsilitis causing motions we don't normally feel on any given day. Yep, Valentines Day.

It may be obvious that I'm not one for that day but I am not against love. It just so happens that most of the Valentines days I've had went rather poorly and most of those days I've worn black indicating my apparent rebellion against the world.

This year, I decided to finally succumb to the trend. Yep, I wore red...shoes!

hehe as if I had a choice. That's my only pair of sneakers and I needed it for my Hearts day surprise. Okay, on to the real subject of this post.

Having no one to spend the day with and nothing to do, I decided to make it special for my parents instead. This served a double purpose for me: 1) I wouldn't be spending Valentines night alone while they're out on a date and 2) I get to keep my mind away from being...alone. Besides, what better way to spend Hearts day but by giving your time and effort to people you really love?

So I planned a dinner date for my parents at the annex of our house. It was a surprise and I did all the decorating and buying of food without their knowledge, at least I think they didn't know. By the time they got home, I asked them to get dressed for a date, turned on the fine-dining music and welcomed them to my makeshift dinner pad.

Don't you just love fairy lights? =)

Thanks to Red Ribbon for the Black Forest Heart Cake. For the sparkly 'wine', I'd like to introduce to you the combination of Fit n Right Apple and Sprite. Sprapplitight! Okay, any other suggestions for that combi?

Celebrating love is important. If you're single, you celebrate it with the people around you who don't seem to have anyone to celebrate it with. You share your gifts, talents and time. You make sure that their day is extra special and you'll find out that you're day will turn out even more special. It's by thinking about other people that we forget our own deficiencies and our own needs. By making other people smile and laugh and fall in love, we make ourselves smile, laugh and fall in love. It starts to feel like everything fits and that we don't need somebody else to make us happy. We can be happy by making other people happy. This doesn't, of course, diminish our desire to have someone to go out with and to celebrate with on Hearts day but it does buffer the loneliness and the constant wondering of what's taking our prince charming so long.

For those who have special someones, treat every day as Valentines day. Love should not be confined to just one day of the year. Love is supposed to be the life force that keeps us living every day. We exist to love just like we were created to be loved. Never take for granted what God has given you. Your significant other may not be as expressive as you are but it doesn't mean they don't love you back. Sometimes it takes one person to step out into the open for the rest of the world to follow. When you love someone, remind them every day that you do. Treat them as if it was your first day together or the last day you'll ever have. Treat them the way you would treat yourself every day by taking care of them, making sure they have what they need and protecting them always. I don't mean to say that you should spoil them. What I'm saying is that you should learn to help them grow. Step back when needed. Catch them when they stumble. Comfort them when they hurt. Then let them go if they want. Lovers also need to grow as individuals and when they do, they realize that they are better together now, they complement each other better.

It's never easy to have someone rely on you with such emotional needs. It's never easy to be the one to think everything through. And of course no one said love was going to be easy. Love, however, will be worth everything in the end. Love will be worth the work and the strain and yes, even the hurts and pains. Love is, after all, what we're living for.

Now, I don't seem to have credibility to say any of this but sometimes being a few steps back can make a person see everything clearly. And I see everything.

I hope everyone has a love-filled day!