1 Heart at a Time

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day.  Otherwise known as the day of mismanaged expectations and mysterious chocolates that nobody really enjoys.  …the day where everyone has an equal chance to be emotionally disappointed.  Not everybody waits for Valentine’s Day with bated breath. Some of us would rather go into hiding and then emerge out on February 15 to buy up all the discounted chocolate.

Eat what you want, exercise your prerogative, and find a good plastic surgeon who gives frequent flyer miles.  – Miss Piggy

Others of us have more grandiose plans. 1. Have breakfast in bed, preferably with chocolate. 2. Anticipate the delivery of a bouquet of roses. 3. Dinner for two.  4. Regret eating two dinners.

Well, at least my whipping cream has a date.

You are never alone on Valentines’s Day if you have bread and are near a lake.  – Nick Primavera

My friends often accuse me of having an intimacy problem. 

But they don’t really know me. 

It’s not that I dislike people. It’s just that I feel better when they aren’t around.

Then again, one of the greatest privileges of being on one’s own is the flattering illusion that one is, in truth, really quite an easy person to live with.

Yes, I think I’m the one.

Well, if you don’t have a sweetheart to consider, you might as well use Valentine’s Day as an excuse to buy something nice for yourself that’s not a quart of ice cream.

If love is the answer, could you rephrase the question?  – Lily Tomlin

It’s no secret that we humans are hardwired for connection, but I think that men are more romantic than women.

For what woman can afford to be romantic, when they know that one day they will probably have to perfect the Lamaze method?

And not only for childbirth.

Love is taking time for yourself, your special people, and of course and ultimately why I write these commodious leitmotifs – for your home.

Making a home in this world is a function of making time to love.

Making time is taking time and giving ‘hyggelite’attention to being a good friend, spouse, daughter, brother – to remember your elderly neighbour with her meowing stray cat, to any that ask for help, and to any of your plants that have names.

Why not show up for even one like you wish someone would show up if it were you? We need to show up for each other. And water our plants.

We have such a lax regard for time, a careless disdain of fate. We take so much for granted, thinking we have all the time in the world, but maybe that last time is the last time we will get to see someone. 

Say “I love you!” while you can.

Speaking like a Hallmark card, the only real gift you can give is a bit of your heart. Caring makes for a stronger heart, for a love of a life worth living.

One can never know anyone as completely as they want. But that’s okay, love is better. The experience against which everything else is measured. 

Pablo Piccasso or Shakespeare or Reece Witherspoon, depending on what social media platform you follow, wisely said that the purpose of your life is to find your gift — and then give it away. 

Speaking of giving, nothing says romance more than a book on parenting. 

By the way, I’m available anytime if you would like to talk – but not now, I want to be alone. I’m going to put on my pyjamas now because I’ve been out of them for over three hours, and I’m getting a little anxious.    Here’s to a love-ly Valentine’s Day.  But no pressure. Unless, of course, that’s what you want. I mean, we can see how it goes… This got awkward. Sorry.