Whoa...it's Valentine's Day???

By Pam Hadder

It looks like the annual-reminder-of-all-things-romantic is upon us!  Depending on where you are at in life, Valentine’s Day can be fantastic, stressful, lonely, dreamy, or anticlimactic – or some crazy mixture of many emotions!  The Buddha once said that “He who loves 50 people has 50 woes; he who loves none has no woes.” It appears that love is high risk and high maintenance, yet it continues to reign supreme as humanity’s elusive muse, inspiring writers, artists, scholars and everyone in between.

No matter how you define it, or whether you feel you have ever known it, love is a hot topic. Wildly paradoxical, love is jet fuel for commerce, and a beacon of hope in a world of power struggles.  So when it comes to the complexities of love, we hope you can take time to reflect on what really matters:  self-love so you can be vital and energized for interactions with others, tolerance to allow room for other viewpoints and values, and humour to let joy shine through – even in difficult spaces and places. And what about human kindness, gentleness, and paying it forward (just because)? These accessible feelings are the humble stepping stones and the smaller bits that make up the much glorified version of LOVE to which we are taught to aspire.

      

But, hey, don’t take our word for it – here’s what some other folks have to say about love:

“My love, you know you are my best friend. You know that I’d do anything for you…let nothing come between us…” – Sarah McLachlan 

"We've got this gift of love...like a precious plant...keep watering it" – John Lennon

“Love does not dominate; it cultivates.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” – Mother Teresa

“All that we love deeply becomes part of us.” – Helen Keller

“Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.” – Zora Neale Hurston

“To fear love is to fear life…” – Bertrand Russell

“Only do what your heart tells you.” – Princess Diana

“Love is all we have; the only way that each can help the other.” – Euripides

“Love is what you have been through with somebody.” – James Thurber

“Your words are my food… you are everything to me.” – Sarah Bernhardt

“What love we are given, we’ll have forever…” – Leo Buscaglia

“Love…it surrounds every being and extends slowly to embrace all that shall be.” – Kahlil Gibran

“Do you have to have a reason for loving?” – Brigitte Bardot