Outfit details: bit.ly/1T79ExV
Valentine's Day gets a pretty bad rap. Since I can remember, I've heard people in all relational categories complain about it. The single people comment about the date they don't have or the gifts they won't receive. The taken people stress over getting a dinner reservation somewhere or whatever else they feel obligated to do to keep their significant other happy. Everyone loves to accuse Hallmark or the candy companies of rigged marketing to boost sales. Or there's the famous line about "loving someone shouldn't be confined to one day out of the year."
I, on the other hand, adore Valentine's Day: the candy hearts, the abundance of flower arrangements, the overwhelming amount of pink all around you (like some of these favorites of mine). Name a cliché and I probably love it.
But before you go making assumptions, let me clarify that I've taken this same position while standing on polar sides of the spectrum.
I loved Valentine's Day when I was in a relationship.
Celebrating is one of my favorite things to do (the occasion is irrelevant). And when I celebrate, I love to go all out. So for Valentine's Day as a girlfriend, I loved making heart shaped pancakes for breakfast in bed (served on red plates with heart napkins, obviously). I loved listening to the curated Spotify playlist I made full of cheesy love songs while we ate the filet mignon I cooked (bonus points because I'm a vegetarian). I loved being surprised, getting flowers and embracing the cliches and silly-ness that tend to be associated with the holiday, because I found them all to be incredibly fun.
I loved Valentine's Day as a recently heartbroken single.
A couple weeks after a breakup (one where we had dated for 7 years, mind you) Valentine's Day rolled around. As if that didn't sound painful enough already, that weekend would have been our anniversary (complete with email reminders of our dinner reservation to pour salt in the wound). Double ouch. I'm not going to pretend like the magic of Valentine's Day suddenly wiped away any trace of grief- because it didn't. Pretty much every day sucked during that season. But what I loved about that particular Valentine's Day was a different kind of love that I got from my friend Emily, who let me fly to visit her in NYC on a whim (crashing her and her husband's first married Valentine's Day) so that I could get away from everything. She took me shopping in SoHo (#retailtheraphy) and to see Mamma Mia! on Broadway because I had always wanted to go. While we were at the show her husband was cooking us dinner so we could come home to candles, flowers, champagne and music. And then, they took me out to bars that were crawling with singles so we could take shots and laugh and I could be reminded that even though it was new for me, there were literally thousands of other single people in the world that were perfectly fine- and that I would be too.
I'm also so excited for Valentine's Day this year: as a non-heartbroken single. I'll be spending it with some of the best girlfriends on the planet while we cook dinner, watch movies, drink champagne, buy each other flowers and indulge in complete girly-ness.
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The way I see it, Valentine's Day is simply a day to celebrate love in all its forms: in our marriages, dating relationships, friendships, families, workplaces, communities- you name it. It's a day that reminds us to lavish love on people. Whether it's cooking a steak for someone you're dating, comforting your heartbroken best friend, making memories with people who make your life better, or a random act of kindness to a stranger on the street. Valentine's Day compels us to be reminded that love is all around.
So no, we shouldn't store up love to try to prove something on one specific day of the year. But I, for one, don't want to pass up any chance that presents itself to give it away generously- and Valentine's Day seems like the perfect opportunity to do just that.
Regardless of what you do to celebrate or who you're celebrating with this year, I hope you'll embrace the goodness the day has to offer to you wherever you are in life. Let's throw the cynicism out the window, be advocates for love, and celebrate Valentine's Day unapologetically (clichés and whimsy highly recommended).
Outfit details: bit.ly/1T79ExV
Outfit details: bit.ly/1T79ExV
Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand. -Mother Teresa
