Wait until next year

Happy Valentine’s Day to all my lovely readers. May it bring you great joy, or failing that, may you survive it without feeling awful about yourself and the world. You’re great. Don’t worry.

I was having a little think about Valentine’s Day. It is, of course, a horrible commercial event in many ways, something false to fill the coffers of the greetings cards companies, florists, restaurants etc. It puts an undue pressure on us all to be romantic (and romance under pressure is never romantic), it highlights our aloneness when we have nobody to be romantic with and seems to provide an excuse to not be romantic the rest of the year as there is already a date set aside for all that soppy stuff.

But Valentine’s Day is an opportunity for us to think about who we love and to let them know that – which is no bad thing. I think it is also an opportunity to realise that love is not just about buying someone stuff so they know that you love them. Love is about showing someone you love them each and every day, in word and deed. And even if you don’t feel comfortable declaring “I love you” each and every day, you really should be showing that person how much they mean to you. And that needn’t be through the act of buying a bunch of flowers and the booking of a table at a crowded restaurant, it can be through the little things too.

That’s what I think, anyway. For what it’s worth.