Valentines Month And More

Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.
- Ann Landers

"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you"
- Winnie the Pooh to Christopher Robin

So we have reached February - the shortest month of the year with my favourite day - Valentine's.  Call me sentimental, call me a dreamer, but this one day catches my attention more than any other.  I suppose having lived through so many of them as a single mother with no one to share the moment with gives Valentine's Day a special place now that I have someone to love and who loves me the rest of the days of the year.  But love is not just something between two people who have met, dated and are now fully committed to each other.  There is love between a parent and a child, love between siblings and friends.  My husband truly loves his cats and I'm sure he treats them better than me sometimes. Ideally we should love all things unconditionally - mankind, the environment, mother earth.

So much has been written about love it's nearly impossible to know where to begin.  Try searching the Internet for "What is Love" and get ready for some serious reading.  A lot of it is the stuff you find on a Hallmark Card - cute and sentimental with words like trust, sharing, mutual respect, dreams caring and so on.  These are all a part of it, but love is so much more than words and for those of us who truly love another we understand that completely.  For me, laughter is a huge part of it.  We need to be able to be able to laugh with someone, laugh at them and laugh at ourselves.  Love is not taking things seriously, sharing our triumphs and trials.  We must be ready to carry them and to allow ourselves to be carried when we are injured whether it be physically, emotionally or spiritually.  

This Valentine's Day, take the time to tell your partner, lover husband, wife, child or parent how much they mean to you. They likely already know, but I assure you everyone wants to hear it from time to time.  Also, make a commitment to live your life with love, compassion and gratitude.  When you do your chores, do them with love.  A meal cooked with love will always, always taste better than one cooked with resentment and loathing.  A room dusted with love with shine and glow compared to a room cleaned in haste and without thought.

Lastly, there can be no love for another if you are unable to love yourself and before we can love our self we must learn to forgive ourselves and accept who we are - imperfections and all.

For some of you, February is also the beginning of Lent, a period of 40 days leading up to Easter Sunday.  This is a time when we traditionally give up things such as drinking alcohol or eating red meat or any number of vices or indulgences we incorporate into our lives the rest of the year.  I found the following on the Internet and I want to share with SBCN readers. I think this is a nice thing to do, any time of the year, take a 30 or 40 day break from negatives in our life. For all walks of like. Why not, let me know what you think. It may start a new spark of change.

  
What to give up for Lent
Give up complaining . . . . . . . . . . . focus on gratitude.
Give up pessimism . . . . . . . . . . . become an optimist.
Give up harsh judgments . . . . . . . . . . . think kindly thoughts.
Give up worry . . . . . . . . . . . trust Divine Providence.
Give up discouragement . . . . . . . . . . . be full of hope.
Give up bitterness . . . . . . . . . . . turn to forgiveness.
Give up hatred . . . . . . . . . . . return good for evil.
Give up negativism . . . . . . . . . . . be positive.
Give up anger . . . . . . . . . . . be more patient.
Give up pettiness . . . . . . . . . . . become mature.
Give up gloom . . . . . . . . . . . enjoy the beauty that is all around you.
Give up jealousy . . . . . . . . . . . pray for trust.
Give up gossiping . . . . . . . . . . . control your tongue.
Give up sin . . . . . . . . . . . turn to virtue.
Give up giving up . . . . . . . . . . . hang in there!
Give up complaining . . . . . . . . . . . focus on gratitude.
Give up pessimism . . . . . . . . . . . become an optimist.
Give up harsh judgments . . . . . . . . . . . think kindly thoughts.
Give up worry . . . . . . . . . . . trust Divine Providence.
Give up discouragement . . . . . . . . . . . be full of hope.
Give up bitterness . . . . . . . . . . . turn to forgiveness.
Give up hatred . . . . . . . . . . . return good for evil.
Give up negativism . . . . . . . . . . . be positive.
Give up anger . . . . . . . . . . . be more patient.
Give up pettiness . . . . . . . . . . . become mature.
Give up gloom . . . . . . . . . . . enjoy the beauty that is all around you.
Give up jealousy . . . . . . . . . . . pray for trust.
Give up gossiping . . . . . . . . . . . control your tongue.
Give up sin . . . . . . . . . . . turn to virtue.
Give up giving up . . . . . . . . . . . hang in there!

Have a great month.

Karen Egoff

MySoulbalance.com