By Shawn McAndrew
On February 14, many people around the world celebrate Valentine’s Day – a day about love for most of us. The story of how this day came about is rather dark and lurid. It is best looked up on your own (I don’t want to be a Debby Downer here when we’re talking about love!).
Feast of St. Valentine
Suffice to say, the holiday is named for St. Valentine, a Roman who was imprisoned for performing unsanctioned weddings. Two hundred years after St. Valentine’s death, Pope Gelasius I established the Feast of St. Valentine in 496 AD.
Throughout the centuries, traditions were established for St. Valentine’s Day, celebrated poets and playwrights wrote about the spirit of St. Valentine, and eventually Hallmark gave credence to the day with greeting cards that provided us all with a vehicle by which to say, “I love you.”
Your Heart Knows True Love
Each year, we spend billions of dollars on chocolates, flowers, cards, diamonds, and other fanciful gifts as a way to confirm our love for another (or ourselves). At the Process, we have only to reconnect with our Spirit to find love, a love that is true, pure, and can never fail or disappear.
Our invitation on this heart day is to reconnect to Spirit, to our true essence that is love, loving, and lovable. Those many centuries ago when Valentine first united couples in defiance of the law is a testament to why love wins – the heart knows what the heart knows.
525,600 Minutes
On this day, reach out to someone with whom you haven’t connected for a while and check in – maybe your buddy from the Process. Tell your loved ones what you appreciate about them. Show a random act of kindness to the stranger in the line next to you while you’re waiting for your drink order. Make this day about love – for yourself first, and then for others. Maybe we can embody the spirit of Valentine’s Day year-round: five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes of love for ourselves and others.