Saturday, February 07, 2009
Preparation for Valentine's Day
Like taking a vacation or dressing for a black tie affair, Valentine’s day requires some preparation. The aisles at Walmart® fairly brim with red heart shaped boxes and dozens of flowers. The card aisle showcases hundreds of flashy cards. Advertisements tempt us to order everything from diamonds to new cars to fulfill our sweetheart’s wishes and dreams. The hype of Valentine’s day lies far from the true preparations you and I must make for this special day. True preparations belong in the two places that mean the most, the heart and life.
Many legends surround the name Valentine. The one I remember the best follows. Valentine, a Christian in the city of Rome delighted in his family, friends and others of faith. The emperor started a persecution of Christians that netted Valentine into prison for his faith. His loneliness for his family and friends grew so heavy in his heart that he devised a plan to send his love to them from prison. He used leaves from plants growing into the prison windows and a small stick to write letters of love by poking small holes in the leaves. He then used doves or pigeons to deliver those love messages to his family and friends. This makes a fanciful story but provides good lessons for us today as we prepare for Valentine’s day.
When the persecution removed all else from him, Valentine found the important things of life. Family, friends, loved ones comprise the most valuable and precious of gifts to us. People and our relationships with them embody the very essence of value in our lives. What good comes from working all those extra hours to find success or to gain money? One day given to loving someone, warming her heart outshines all the business deals, the shiny cars, the lustrous diamonds money can buy.
Whether we love someone now or will in the future, Valentine’s day preparation begins today. Today prepare your heart to give the real you to your loved one. Today prepare your life to cherish each moment of the day with that person as if it were your last moment with them. We each possess two things that when given to our loved one expresses the most precious of gifts. Time, we each possess a limited supply. When we chose to spend those hours and days with that special person, we say ‘I love you’ with our most precious commodity. The person who exists under the masks we wear, given to that loved one says ‘all that I am, all that I will ever be, I give to you my dear friend, the person I love’. What two more precious things could anyone give than your time and yourself? There exist no other gifts so precious and valuable.
The beauty of today beacons me to prepare my heart and life for Valentine’s day. I shall let the sun fall on my face, let the wind ruffle my hair and let myself fill with caring, love and openness for the special ones in my life. Please do not make an excuse my friend. Go and prepare yourself for giving the rest of your life to those special people. True love demands we both give and receive in this exchange of life. As for me, I choose to prepare to give, I choose to prepare to love.
Happy Valentine’s day! Use your time and self wisely.
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Many legends surround the name Valentine. The one I remember the best follows. Valentine, a Christian in the city of Rome delighted in his family, friends and others of faith. The emperor started a persecution of Christians that netted Valentine into prison for his faith. His loneliness for his family and friends grew so heavy in his heart that he devised a plan to send his love to them from prison. He used leaves from plants growing into the prison windows and a small stick to write letters of love by poking small holes in the leaves. He then used doves or pigeons to deliver those love messages to his family and friends. This makes a fanciful story but provides good lessons for us today as we prepare for Valentine’s day.
When the persecution removed all else from him, Valentine found the important things of life. Family, friends, loved ones comprise the most valuable and precious of gifts to us. People and our relationships with them embody the very essence of value in our lives. What good comes from working all those extra hours to find success or to gain money? One day given to loving someone, warming her heart outshines all the business deals, the shiny cars, the lustrous diamonds money can buy.
Whether we love someone now or will in the future, Valentine’s day preparation begins today. Today prepare your heart to give the real you to your loved one. Today prepare your life to cherish each moment of the day with that person as if it were your last moment with them. We each possess two things that when given to our loved one expresses the most precious of gifts. Time, we each possess a limited supply. When we chose to spend those hours and days with that special person, we say ‘I love you’ with our most precious commodity. The person who exists under the masks we wear, given to that loved one says ‘all that I am, all that I will ever be, I give to you my dear friend, the person I love’. What two more precious things could anyone give than your time and yourself? There exist no other gifts so precious and valuable.
The beauty of today beacons me to prepare my heart and life for Valentine’s day. I shall let the sun fall on my face, let the wind ruffle my hair and let myself fill with caring, love and openness for the special ones in my life. Please do not make an excuse my friend. Go and prepare yourself for giving the rest of your life to those special people. True love demands we both give and receive in this exchange of life. As for me, I choose to prepare to give, I choose to prepare to love.
Happy Valentine’s day! Use your time and self wisely.
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Monday, February 02, 2009
LinkEmpty life? Fill it with friends!
Have you ever realized how empty your life would be without someone you see or talk to every day in it? As I was working this morning, going through the motions of my daily routine, I realized something important. A dear dear friend of mine will be on vacation in another state for the next several weeks. My realization was that I will miss her and already do miss her very much. Our nearly daily chats have brought some happy moments and warm feelings. There is an empty place in my life that was recently filled with kind words and gentle thoughts from my friend. Hopefully she will return soon, however, the empty place made me realize that those people in our lives who are there everyday or nearly so, brighten up our lives in a profound way.
For a moment, think about those everyday people in your life. The woman at the office or store who chats about everything under the sun, the man at church or synagogue who takes a piece of your time each week, the child, parent or sibling who seems to have nothing better to do than ask questions or chatter away. All of them seem ordinary, maybe even bothersome until you try to live your day without them there. Can you feel the empty spot left when that person is not in their usual place?
Now imagine not a day but a week, month, year, or a lifetime without that person. How might we treat that person differently if we stopped to realize they might not always be there? What kind of thankfulness might we have for the ordinary people in our lives that make each day something special just because they are there?
My meetup group has given me a new perspective on friends in one’s life. Most every evening after work was spent watching TV or walking in the park before I started attending functions with them. During the last function I laughed for nearly three hours straight. This new interaction with the members of my group has also made me realize that a person can never have too many friends. Take a minute today to be thankful for the friends you have in your life. Now, take a lifetime to give of yourself to them. If they should disappear from your life, you will have made happy memories and built a life of no regrets.
Go out today and live!
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For a moment, think about those everyday people in your life. The woman at the office or store who chats about everything under the sun, the man at church or synagogue who takes a piece of your time each week, the child, parent or sibling who seems to have nothing better to do than ask questions or chatter away. All of them seem ordinary, maybe even bothersome until you try to live your day without them there. Can you feel the empty spot left when that person is not in their usual place?
Now imagine not a day but a week, month, year, or a lifetime without that person. How might we treat that person differently if we stopped to realize they might not always be there? What kind of thankfulness might we have for the ordinary people in our lives that make each day something special just because they are there?
My meetup group has given me a new perspective on friends in one’s life. Most every evening after work was spent watching TV or walking in the park before I started attending functions with them. During the last function I laughed for nearly three hours straight. This new interaction with the members of my group has also made me realize that a person can never have too many friends. Take a minute today to be thankful for the friends you have in your life. Now, take a lifetime to give of yourself to them. If they should disappear from your life, you will have made happy memories and built a life of no regrets.
Go out today and live!
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