Valentine Advice

       Have you ever noticed how the traditional gifts on Valentine's Day don't last?  Flowers die within days.  Candy is consumed, or melts, or is thrown away in a virtuous act of guilty avoidance.  Consider the attempts to hang on to these gifts.  What is less romantic than frozen candy?

     Consider the endurance of Valentine cards.  How many Valentines have you kept over the years?  How did you decide to keep that special one, or two?  Starting in grade school, Valentine cards have been counted, and tossed.  Their life in the cubbyholes of our bedrooms are generally shorter-lived than that bag of Halloween candy.  How different is it now?  How will you make your "valentine" to your loved one different this year from all others?

     If we want our love to last, we should definitely avoid durable goods on Valentine's Day.  ( If you have already bought you wife a washing machine for Valentine's Day, consider bestowing it upon her on Groundhog Day instead.)  I would even go so far as to say, avoid anything at all that is returnable.

     If we want our love to last,  we must find something that doesn't last, and cannot be exchanged for something else.  Something that is fresh, fleeting, ephemeral, delivered with whimsy and enjoyed spontaneously.   Something that must be reinvented anew each year.  Something that keeps our dearest wondering, "What is around the next corner?"

     Thinking of initiating a panicked online search or a frenzied shopping expedition?  Don't.   It may not exist in a store, not even a virtual store. Instead, look within.  Easy?  No.  Scary?  (You may now even be tempted now to rush out with the throngs and buy that candy and devour it yourself.)  Is lasting love easy?  No.  Is staying young at heart easy?  No.  No. No. No.  But say "Yes" anyway.

     You need no purchase as you approach your love on Valentine's Day.  It is about what you carry in your heart, that speaks of the moment, felt in that moment.  It is about giving the great gift of time and undivided attention, those precious commodities so hard to find and impossible to buy.  It means honoring that  young, free, ageless spirit.  It means cherishing the nuanced feelings that cannot be contained in a heart-shaped box.   It is about dipping deeply into the well, and sharing the eternal waters.  Splashing, sprinkling, showering, or tidal-waving -- your style, your moment to create . . . a water dance of the soul.

     And . . . a few flowers to go along with it all are never a bad idea.