Valentine's Day is for amateurs

I hate to repeat myself, but I can’t help but preface some things with “I know it’s my age showing”.   This post is a classic example.   It’s Valentine’s Day…the holiday for lovers.   Well…..I think it’s the holiday for beginners.

There is nothing more intoxicating than falling in love.   That first blush is usually full of gifts, I love you calls during the day, and romantic getaways.   It’s a time of flowers and candy and surprises; all in all a wonderful time for a new couple.

But we live in the real world, and it is inevitable, even if the bond holds up,   that things change.  The demands of a life together can soak up the limited budget of money and time.   Enjoying time together often goes from romantic evenings out to evenings on the couch, comparing notes about a stressful workday and sharing a bag of microwave popcorn.   Little gifts go from gift wrapped boxes, to clearing a loved-ones  windows before they use the car, or opening a car door to tuck your loved on inside.   

 All of that may sound like a disagreeable change, but in reality it isn’t.   Love is a shape –shifter, make no mistake.    The hand you took tentatively on a first date is now the hand you hold on to in the grocery store and at the doctor’s office.  Love’s face is the one crinkled with concern in a hospital waiting room, the one flooded with relief when the news is good.    Love’s first voice may be “you’re hot!” and then become “put your hand on his head, honey,   I think he’s cooler now”.   Gifts may not be in heart shaped boxes on a retail created holiday, but heart felt exchanges of many kinds on any given day.

That brings me to my point:   Valentine’s Day is for beginners.   It is a pair of romantic training wheels needed when first you discover one another.  I’m not saying it’s  a bad thing, but it is certainly a contrived thing.   This is not a suggestion you ignore the celebration with your significant other, but that we all keep it in perspective as we look at our  relationship's “big picture”.

       I know firsthand that love never changes…..and it is the most valuable thing you will ever have.

                                 Happy Valentine’s Day…..Life is Good