Valentines Day

Another Valentine's Day has come and gone and I survived.  I use the term survive because it is a day that I want to just get through.   Valentines Day is a moment to celebrate love, to cherish your loved ones and reflect on the special feeling of being loved.  In doing so, people act in some very unique ways.   I have seen everything from dressing certain ways (red for those who have expectations on this day, and black for those who don't) to making purchases of  cards, flowers, diamonds, etc.  There are certain expectations that sometimes lead to joy and some to heartache.   These expectations fill the day with pressures akin to taking a standardized test.  The problem is love is a feeling, not an act. 
The way in which someone behaves on Valentine's Day is really not a true measure of how someone feels.  The 'act' of buying flowers, or writing prose, or wearing a red dress (or red lingerie for that matter) does not make feelings of love any truer or for that matter create feelings where there are none.  It is simply a matter of bowing to peer pressure in the same way that a child does not want to be the only one without a cool lunchbox.
Love should never be reduced to simply an act on one day.  Love is so much stronger, and more meaningful than any material possession could ever demonstrate.   Love is the uncontrollable desire to be around someone in the way that a baby clings to mom.  Love is selfless.  Love is the desire to meet another's needs, like a brother giving of his own body for his sibling.  Love is the feeling of completeness that comes from a spouse who supports you, cares for you and allows you to see things that you couldn't before.  Love is the willingness to do anything for another person, but never being asked.  Love is more than I can simply describe in this short moment.  Sadly, Valentine's Day is more about material desire and selfish lust.  It is about people engaging in all manner of things in the name of not being "left out."  I for one chose to express my love throughout the year and try to do so in ways that aren't just acts.