When you are old and grey and full of sleep, and nodding by the fire, take down this book. And slowly read, and dream of the soft look, your eyes once had, and of their shadows deep.
How many loved your moments of glad grace, and loved your beauty with love false or true. But one man loved the Pilgrim Soul in you, and loved the sorrows in your changing face.
And bending down beside the glowing bars, murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled and paced upon the mountains overhead. And hid his face among a crowd of stars. W. B. YEATS
Love is a strange old thing. We are all born with the ability to connect to it, some feeling deeply within, others choosing to ignore the power it has within our spirit. Love has the ability to do so much good – the energy that comes within is vital to our development, it helps us to forgive, to learn, to feel and to heal. Love is everywhere if we open our eyes- birds content in their tree homes and chirping away in the readiness for mating season, the first bursts of spring in the garden, sharing a joke and laughter with family and friends; sharing a smile and a kind word with a stranger in need.
I remember as a teenager the blushes and excitement of St Valentine’s Day. My friends and I would huddle in our groups and giggle about our crushes and ‘should I or shouldn’t I?’ send a card. One year I walked a good couple of miles to post a card to the person of my affection – just to avoid him being able to deduce said card was from me based on my postcode. Racing in from school I’d check the front porch to see if there was any post. There never was until around tea-time ( I’m from an ordinary family ‘tea-time’ meant dinner!) – when I’d hear the clatter of our letterbox. Heart racing I’d open the front door and there in the porch would be an envelope marked for me. Some years it would be a big red one, others pink or white. The message inside was pretty much the same every year: ‘To a devil from a devil, who the devil is it?’ or ‘To You, From Who – Do you know?’. How I analysed the message, the handwriting. As the years moved on I began to realise just who my devil was – and continued to play the game of innocence, but with my pocket money returned a similarly worded card to my not-so secret admirer. The cards finally stopped with illness and injury when the apple of my eye joined the stars in the sky. I continue my daddy’s tradition with my own boys. St Valentine’s may be a bit of a gimmick these days – I don’t believe you need a set meal out to show your appreciation. What it does allow is an opportunity to send a heartfelt reminder that you care and that in the case of my two busy busy teens and others – that they are loved and thought about every day of the year. So wherever you are, whatever your circumstance may you take a moment to stop and pause and open your eyes and your heart. Cheers to that!
#love#valentine#family
Prosecco Patty 