Valentines Day Inspiration

“Mama, I think you are the best mommy in the whole world.”

Oh, I just want to grab those words and carry them around in my pocket for, like, the next seventy years.  They’ll be well worn from my hand reaching in for a reassuring rub.

“What makes you feel like I’m the best mommy in the world?”  I ask, curious to hear Little Friend’s response.

“I like the way you look.  And I like all the ways your voice sounds,” {I’m currently hoarse with a cold}, “And I like that you let me do what I want.”

Ah hah.

Guess what statements I won’t be hearing in about, oh, nine years from now?  She will not like the way I look.  She will not like any of the ways my voice might sound.  And she will not like that I won’t let her do what she wants.  Pretty sure I’ll spend some time in the maternal doghouse for being the worst mommy in the world.  Those pocket words are going to get a whole lot of rubbing come nine years from now, because even if she won’t tell me then, I’ll know that she still loves me as if I were the best mommy in the whole world, even if she doesn’t particularly like me.

Surely there are two kinds of love in this life: the surface kind that appreciates good looks, a husky voice, and a permissive attitude.  Then there’s the deeper kind: the deep-in-the-bones kind that says the hard “no” because it’s the right thing to do, the kind that thrills to say “yes” whenever possible, the kind that loves you for who you are and polishes you into an even better you, the kind that weathers the gales and swamping waves of the toddler and teenage years, the kind that keeps on keeping on in the face of come what may, the kind that says you’re the best mommy in the world just because you’re my mom.

Shakespeare’s take on this deep kind of love went something like this:

“Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.” {Sonnet 116, emphasis mine}

I’m coming around to like, dare I say love, Valentines Day as I expand my definition of love deeper than the skin of a surface.  Love, the kind of love that should be celebrated on Valentines Day, should include our beloved somebodies, but it should also include littles and grandparents and chosen family and dear friends and complete strangers who could use a few kind words to tuck away in their pockets.

Instead of fearing the rejection, loneliness, and angst that so often tiptoes along in Valentine’s shadow, I’m choosing to embrace the love that “looks on tempests and is never shaken.”

Valentines Day around our house is going to include hearts and hugs and cards and yummy food and more yes and less no.  We’re going to spread our love around to anyone we can think of to suck into our orbit for the day.  We’re going to practice loving when loving is easy so we have reserves to bear it out when life’s inevitable love-droughts occur.  This year’s Valentines Day is going to be an investment toward the teenage years and beyond.

Here’s some inspiration to celebrate Valentines Day 2013:

1.  Easy and adorable DIY heart garland via Pinterest

2. Simple Valentines Day celebrations from Simple Kids

3. I  l.o.v.e. these Valentines–“You make my heart soar because _______” –from Paper Coterie

4. 50 ideas for making your own Valentines

5.  My most coveted Vday gift–a rose gold initial(s) necklace from Olive Yew

6. A Valentines Day scavenger hunt

7. My favorite Valentines Day chocolate

8. Wear your heart on your sleeve in this adorable ModCloth sweater

9. Tea for two for a simple, low-stress Valentines date–with free printable from Shake Shakee

What inspirations do you have that I could add to our love-fest plans?

This post is shared with Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop.