My dog Rosie turned 12 this week. She’s a golden Labrador with big brown eyes and blond hair that never stops sticking to the furniture.
Her birthday reminded me of how deeply I love her. It led me to question how we explain feelings of intense love for a pet, a child, parent, friend, or romantic partner.
Despite all of loves failings it’s the one emotion we can never give up on, even if we try.
Valentines Day celebrates romantic love, and the love we feel for our friends and family. The history is murky, but we know its origins are in godly love.
Saint Valentine was the patron saint of love, who handed out white notes with expressions of gods love.
In the Middle Ages poet Geoffrey Chaucer advanced the idea by motivating people to write love letters to their betrothed and it took off. The first Valentine’s card was sent from prison.
Nowadays 145 million Valentines cards are exchanged every year, not including the ones classmates exchange at school Valentines Day parties.
The giving of flowers began when Victoria era men claimed red roses as a symbol of love, and in 1861, Richard Cadbury created heart shaped boxes of chocolates.
North Americans will spend $26 billion this month celebrating love. Commercialism aside, the sentiment is essential to our humanness and to our existence, for without love we are not alive.
Believe in love even if doesn’t look like what you expected because love is everywhere. It’s in how we make a meal, how we interact with our neighbour, and how we treat others.
Love is not something you discover one day. It’s learning to see it in every day so that it can lift you up and keep you strong.
Whether you choose to celebrate Valentines Day or not remember love is to be cherished and not to be taken for granted.
Ingrid Abbott is a writer who is a little mushy.
