Loving Day: Dr. Phil Style.

Valentines is quickly approaching.

My friend asked this past weekend about my best valentines and nothing immediately came to mind. It wasn't because nothing good had happened, over the past few years my ex and I would usually celebrate with a card or candy, sometimes with dinner but we usually kept it relatively simple (with the exception of our first valentines, which was sweet and fun; punctuated by a horribly bad dinner at serendipity and the best of intentions). I think a few times there might have been flowers.

I was raised in such a way that I always viewed romantic love as such a small part of the holiday. Not that it lacked importance but it was equal in proportion to the weight of familial love and platonic love. The first thing that came to mind when he asked the question, were my younger years when my grandmother (and later my mother) would buy small boxes of chocolates and cards for my brother and I. Little love notes and tokens of their affection. Miniature snoopy dolls. Flowers. The mini-cards that we'd exchange at school to our friends in elementary. The carnations and cards I gave to my friends in high school. I miss those.

I miss my grandmother's most of all.

When we focus so much energy on one thing we lose sight of the bigger picture.