Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate love. This is the perfect time to show love and affection to those people with whom we have important relationships.
Valentine’s Day is associated with cards, flowers, chocolates, and romantic celebrations.
Big gestures of love often occur on Valentine’s Day. One might receive a gift of expensive jewelry, an extravagant bouquet of flowers, a dinner for two at a gourmet restaurant, or a marriage proposal! Sometimes it’s a surprise gesture of love such as an e-card from a long-lost friend. My favourite gestures of love come from my grandchildren — handmade cards and boisterous shouts of “Happy Valentine’s Day”!

Celebrating Relationships on Valentine’s Day
Relationships are about people. They may be intimate partner relationships, close family relationships, or friendships. All relationships represent connections, usually involving emotional attachments. Trust, kindness and respect are key components of positive relationships.
For effective relationships, each person in the relationship has a part to play. I can’t control what others do nor how they act but I can control my behaviour. By behaving in a kind and loving way, I nurture relationships. Kindness benefits me. As well, it has a mood-boosting side effect.
Celebrating Love
It’s said that love is the richest blessing in life. But, what is love? The dictionary describes love as “an intense feeling of deep affection”. Obviously, this could describe how I feel about playing bridge or how my husband feels about watching his favourite football team.
On Valentine’s Day, we don’t think of love in terms of hobbies or sports but rather about some type of romantic love relationship. Countless books, poems, movies, and songs describe romantic relationships.
I’m fortunate to be in a long-lasting love relationship based on commitment, friendship, trust, and respect. After more than 50 years together we have learned to cherish the strengths and vulnerabilities that each of us brings to the relationship.
Although I’ve received many ‘big’ gestures of Valentine’s Day love, it’s the countless ‘small’ gestures every day that have a bigger impact as celebrations of love. It’s the loving smile in the morning, the morning coffee while I relax in bed, and, since retirement, the help with kitchen chores. When I make mistakes, such as unwittingly backing my car into the garage door, losing yet another contact lens, or speaking sharply, there’s no judgement — just words of reassurance, unwavering support, and a bit of humour.
In this time of COVID isolation, many couple relationships are experiencing terrible stress from too much togetherness. Fortunately, we have weathered eleven months of being cooped up without getting on each other’s nerves. Instead, this has been a time of building a closer connection and deepening our friendship.
We talk about values, worries, hopes and dreams. We discuss books we read and movies we watch. We laugh at the political antics of government representatives that make for better reality tv than some of the network shows! Most of all, we say “I love you” frequently and genuinely.
Finally, I’m sending Valentine’s Day wishes to my readers. I appreciate the virtual relationships that we share. My wish for each of you is that you find ways to love the people who are important to you. I wish you a fabulous Valentine’s Day celebration.