Today is Valentine’s Day…It seems we don’t really celebrate this holiday anymore.  Our kids are older so we are done decorating shoe boxes to be stuffed with nerds, m and m’s,  and conversation hearts . Our marriages are, dare we say, older too…so we don’t have reservations at the newest restaurant in the city….we may go out, but it will be a last minute thing.  It’s not that we don’t feel the love, it’s just that we are comfortable now.  When we reflect on that, we cannot help but think of our own parents and their love for each other.

Our parents truly loved each other.  They worked together to give us what they thought we needed. We had a joyous home.  Our mom would work hard to keep us on task and we would all wait patiently for our dad to return from a day at the office.  Our mom mostly was a stay at home mom…but she liked to help out. Every so often she would go with a group of her best girlfriends and waitress for banquets.  She said it was for extra money, but now being moms ourselves, we realize she was probably doing it for the escape.  She always made sure that she had dinner ready, so our dad wouldn’t have to worry about feeding us.  Our mom is amazing, but a cook she is not….She has gotten better, but as kids, oh man we had some bad meals.  Our dad knew that our mom labored to make sure we would be fed and yet he knew we were in for disappointment. It’s been years since we were kids but we still remember the nights when our mom would work.  Our dad would look at the food that our mother had left us, give it a sniff, turn up his nose, and say “Let’s go out” The best part of this story is he had it be our little secret. He wanted to please all the girls in his house.  He couldn’t bear to disappoint any of us. He would have us help him throw away the dinner that our mom so lovingly prepared, not just anywhere, we had to hide it.  He loved her so much that he didn’t want to tell her that some of her concoctions were just shy of inedible.  He just praised her and loved her.  Happy Valentine’s Day. Isn’t it crazy the way you can feel loved.

We’d love to hear your story of how you feel loved in the smallest of ways.