That thing called Love

Every season that could possibly be celebrated with decorations or mini garden flags or cards or parties, is sure to be in my basement storage bin labeled appropriately. The next time of celebration approaches and I am scurrying down to the cellar and yanking out boxes, replacing the new with the old.Out go the snowmen, in come the hearts.

My favorite, however, is the February 14Th holiday referred to as Valentine's Day. I LOVE this holiday! I love everything about it- the cheesy, the romantic, the stupid, the fun, the red and white, the hearts and flowers, the gushy commercials on TV and the sweet valentines received from children and grandchildren. This year I am sure to also receive silly painted hearts or folded heart snowflakes from a classroom of first and second graders. I will love them each one with proper oohing and aahing.



When my kids were little it always amused me to figure out how to squeeze the most from Valentine's Day. I always made a completely red meal, of course, varying year to year as the creative mommy mind went crazy. Raspberry jello, spaghetti with meatballs or heart shaped pizza. Perhaps we'd have beef stroganoff(my mom's recipe has a red sauce), strawberry shortcake or Hawaiian punch to drink.What fun it was showing my children how much I loved them and the fun things of life!!


We always began saving our shoe boxes around the end of the previous year in order to ensure that there would be enough boxes to make our card collectors for each child. Then I would call or ask family,friends and church people to send them all(7! please,each separate) a card for the box they labored so eagerly over. It cost nothing, it rewarded them with the feeling of being loved and cared for. How can we not like that tradition? It was so strongly embedded in my heart that last week I saved 2 big old Folger's containers and painted them for the twins A and E to put Valentines in. There are 8 other grandchildren, but I didn't quite drink enough coffee this year and I sure have no shoe boxes lying around! Now, of course, my mailbox will be buzzing as I send Valentine cards to each one.

I love making people feel loved and cared about. I love the feeling of someone having a brighter day by opening their email inbox or outdoor mailbox and discovering an unexpected envelope.

" Hmmm, I wasn't expecting anything from them, I didn't give them anything to need a thank you. I'll bet it's an invitation to some stupid party...hmmm, nope, it's just a note. Wow, They must like me. How cool, I can smile at them and know I've been thought about by someone" Isn't that a good feeling?

Love is such a warm feeling, such a blanket of protection against the chill of winter and the coldness of the rat race we live in. Love reminds me that I am valuable , I am worth something, I am OK. Love is like the bunch of bushes against the side of my house and there, amongst the greenish brown is a bright red berry. It just jumps out with it's vibrancy and color. I love that berry!!I love walking in a winter wood and finding a spot of color popping out to brighten the path! I want friends to feel that way when they think of me, when they get a silly card or note or email.



Love is also very melodious, like my wind chimes tinkling in the wind today, letting me know they are hanging there guarding the entryway, but not really bothering me with their insistent clanging. I just like the feeling of hearing them occasionally banging against each other gently.

Love is also really fragrant when it is expressed well. The smell of a newborn baby in the first moments of life, the smell of someone just after a shower, the fragrance of your mother's favorite Muguet des Bois perfume, or your dad's Old Spice.
When I am loved by someone, whether a friend or son or daughter or neighbor, it smells good when they approach. There is way too much stench in this world, I like celebrating the smells of love. Think Chocolate.

My kitchen table currently has on it 10 white bags, fruit snacks to one side, heart candies piled high, waiting to be placed lovingly into those white bags. What else can I place in them to show my little baby grandchildren how much I love them? Words spoken each time I see them is never enough. I can leave no legacy more valuable to them then the certainty that this Grammy adored them!

Eliot, Simon, Jesse, Nora, Bianca, Isabel, Ava, Ethan, Aidan and Evelyn are my treasures of love, my gift of love from my Heavenly Father. He told me that He loved me , For God so loved the world(me) that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever(me) believes in Him shall have eternal life! Wow.

He proves that He loves me daily by giving me so many good gifts. I can never count them all, but I do count the many children and grandchildren as the most important, felt by me as the strongest proof gift.

His fragrance washes over me when I am so chilled and weary of the life struggles and circumstances that threaten to sink my ship. Some mornings when I first wake up, I sit and just smell the outside air, then come inside and smell my coffee brewing in the kitchen, and I think "God must love me alot to allow me these fragrances". No kidding.

God's Love involves all of my senses, He misses nothing, He expects nothing, He gives everything. I love Him because He first loved me- unbelievably true and wonderful!

Well, Valentine's Hearts and cards,flowers, candies and parties cannot really come close to God's love, but it certainly can be an easy way for me to express my love to my loved ones! Have I mentioned I love that thing called love?