To every heart love will come.
"Happy Valentine's day.
When you don’t keep a calendar or a diary, and you’re too ‘old’ to track days and dates on your phone, it’s easy to lose a day here and there. It’s even easier to mix up the months. I’m at that point in life where I have to count on my fingers just to figure out how long I’ve been in the States, or how long before this or that happens.
So, when (in January) I expressed my shock on Facebook about totally missing Valentine's Day, the comments came rolling in:
"Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day in January in the USA?"
Of course not! I just missed a finger here and there somewhere.
Seeing that I already missed it once in January and am now a day late in February, I figured this was as good a time as any to share the story behind Valentine’s Day.
Back in the third century AD, Roman Emperor Claudius II was convinced that married men made poor soldiers. So, in a move that could rival modern executive orders, he banned marriage for young men.
The Romans, however, were a lively bunch who loved their festivals. One such celebration was Lupercalia, a mid-February festival marking the arrival of spring. It was filled with fertility rites and - because the Romans liked to keep things interesting - a lottery system for pairing off men and women.
Enter Valentine, to all our knowledge, a man of the cloth.
Valentine was not impressed with the fertility rituals of Lupercalia, nor did he agree with the emperor’s decree against young men marrying. He refused to let love be outlawed and secretly performed marriage ceremonies for young lovers.
But, as these stories go, he was eventually caught. Claudius II ordered his arrest and later his execution. Depending on which version of the story you believe, he was either beaten to death or simply lost his head - literally - on February 14, 270 CE.
While in prison, Valentine reportedly performed a miracle, healing the blind daughter of his jailer, with whom he formed a friendship. Before his execution, he sent her a note signed “From your Valentine.”
More than 200 years later, Pope Gelasius I canonized him as Saint Valentine, and in 496 CE, February 14 was officially declared St. Valentine’s Day. By then, people had already been exchanging love notes for centuries, honoring the priest who defied an emperor in the name of love.
Today, Saint Valentine is known as the patron saint of love, happy marriages, and soon-to-be-married couples.
"Of course, we’re all suckers for love and romance, but what about those of us who know too much about love to ever fall for it again?" asks my dark side.
For us, there’s always a message like this from a friend on WhatsApp:
"To all my friends in committed relationships, Happy Valentine’s Day.
To all the single ones, Happy Independence Day.
To all who were once in love, Happy Heritage Day.
To those who are fighting, Happy Boxing Day.
To those trying to make things work, Happy Labor Day.
And to those expecting surprise gifts like me, Happy April Fool’s Day."
Today my wish for you is this:-
May your year be filled with all the love you need, and may you give away, all the love that you can.
Because, as Lao Tzu once said: