Most people that know me well know that I am absolutely crazy about Valentine's Day. Growing up, Valentine's Day was like Christmas for me. Everyone exchanged little gifts and the day was filled with good feelings and expressions of love. Being a person who craves loves in any and every form, the day seemed perfect for me. That being said, I spent many Valentine's Days feeling sad and depressed. It seemed on far too many occasions that my love was never quite reciprocated and I was left feeling lonely and unlovable.
Somehow, that all changed for me several years ago, and I began celebrating Valentine's Day as an opportunity to express the love and appreciation I had for others. I like to think that I began celebrating the true spirit of Valentine's Day. I wrote letters to my best friends and loved ones that mimicked the famous letters of Saint Valentine, and I would giddy with excitement planning new ways to express my love for those closest to me.
I am still like that today. While I don't write nearly as many letters as I used to or spend quite as much money as I used to, I still love Valentine's Day and look forward to it as a day to honor and appreciate all those people I am blessed to have as a part of my life. This year, is no different. I started anticipating Valentine's Day in January, started planning what I would do and how it would all happen. I was stoked!
Then, some things happened that led me to ponder how I was going to celebrate Valentine's Day at all, much less do it in a great way. In my pondering I stumbled across a really great idea someone else had posted on a blog. Why not use all 14 days leading to the day to celebrate those you love, and why not do it in simple ways? Don't make the day about spending money buying extravagant gifts; make it about expressing your love in ways that really count. So began my journey of 14 Days of Love.
Now, I have a lot of people in my life that I really love, but this journey was an experiment and I get easily overwhelmed. So, I picked one person to focus on this year, and if all goes well, maybe there will be more next year. The person I picked was, of course, my own Mr. Darcy. Outside of my commitment to God, my husband comes first in my life. In addition, while most people may not know this, my husband is going through some of the most difficult times in his life. His day-to-day life is grueling and pretty much thankless at this point. He gives of himself constantly and asks for little to nothing in return. Because of his crazy busy schedule, we don't get to see each other much, which means supporting him in his hard work is that much more difficult for me to do; but this new challenge, this experiment was the perfect way for me to do more.
Starting on February 1st, I have found ways, big and small, to let my husband know how much I love him, how much he means to me. So far, there hasn't been anything extravagant, except maybe for breakfast in bed last Saturday, and I haven't spent an extra dime (mostly because I don't have any extras ;) ) on expressing my love to him. Everything I have done has been simple and mostly done myself (e-cards excepted). We are 5 days in and I can tell you that the joy and happiness I see on Mr. Darcy's face, the love I hear in his voice, are worth every bit of scheming, planning, and self-sacrifice it has taken to implement this plan. Now that I only have 9 nine days left, I find myself sorry that I don't have more. What a wonderful opportunity to love on my husband! I think I'm more excited than he is to see what the next 9 days hold!
I'm sure there are those of you reading this are wondering how any of this applies to you or should be interesting in the slightest to you. Well, here's something for you to think about. How much would you change the life of someone around you if you took 14 days, 10, days, 5 days, whatever, to express to them how much they mean to you? How much would you change your life by giving of yourself to love on someone else? I can't answer those questions for you, but I can say there would most definitely be a change, and it would be a change for the better. I know it has been for me.
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