LOVE

Thank you, guys.

I mean it. Really. THANK YOU.

I didn’t write yesterday’s post to initiate a wave of sympathy. I wrote it because I wanted to be real with you, and if I can’t be real and genuine with you I will (apparently) avoid you. Your comments (both here and elsewhere) buoyed me. Your words (both texted and said OUT LOUD) were a balm.

As I said, I’m learning a lot about love these days. More than anything, I’m learning that love IS the point. I’ve always wrestled with a love/hate relationship when it came to Valentine’s Day. But this last year was different. In fact, every year from here on OUT will be different.
Valentine’s Day is so simple and beautiful. It’s the perfect opportunity to make Valentines and deliver them to your neighbors. It doesn’t matter if you’re 30 or 3 or 15 or 9 or 76.  Apart from the religious significance of Christmas and Easter, Valentine’s Day ranks high up there with Christ-ish holidays.
Showing love is one of life’s MOST fulfilling experiences.
Case in point: Earlier this year on February 14th (to be exact) I put a milk-chocolate Cadbury bar in my daughter’s plastic bike basket. I taped a homemade valentine to it and had my Lacy ride to our elderly neighbor’s house. Lacy returned home a little later with two small stuffed bears: one for her and one for my Trent.

But the satisfaction beaming from Lacy’s eyes wasn’t from the stuffed bear… it was from GIVING.

You all give me so much. You don’t even know.

And as I read the news and see society taking heinous turns, the turn that horrifies me the mostest isn’t obvious. It’s subtle. It isn’t making headlines.
It’s simply this: love is waning.

We are doing almost everything we do out of fear: working out because we’re afraid of not being enough, of not being “beautiful.
We’re parenting out of fear: fear that our children will end up making mistakes, having sex too early or adopt an addiction.
We’re stocking our houses out of fear. Our finances are planned with fear.
Headlines don’t say anything about fear… the fear is hidden behind them. Wars, hate crimes, illicit activity!
It makes us all want to board up our homes and cower.

But I will tell you this -which is something I was told by a still small voice not one solid month ago:

A Daughter of God has no need of cowering.

Love will make you brave.
Work out because you love your body, not because you feel fear or self-loathing.
Parent with love and let the fear take a big ol’ backseat. Or a freight train to hell, which is where fear actually belongs.
Close the news feeds and open a quote book.

And as much as I detest fear and pray for it to be abolished from here to eternity, YOU gave me LOVE.
Love wipes out fear, and for that, I thank you.  While I didn’t need sympathy or attention and wasn’t seeking it, I was given love.  My heart is full.
And the best way to say “thank you” is to give you the gift of cuteness, compliments of my late night entertainment.
Never fear: my late night entertainment is wonderfully appropriate for all ages.