Dear SELF,
Today is Valentines Day, the day of love and lovers. Despite the hype, officially speaking, the day bears the name of St. Valentine, martyred and buried North of Rome. As if being a martyr wasn’t bad enough, to make matters worse, he was removed from the General Roman Calendar in 1969 and entered into the official register of the Roman Martyrology, yet somehow, some ad exec on Madison Avenue found a way to create a day, that celebrates not the man, but the concept of love…or at least their idea of what LOVE is.
Today SELF, is our first Valentine’s Day in 20 years, as a solo flyer. No husband, no lover; officially decreed January 30th.
Last year, while still married, but separated, I innocently I walked into the grocery store the day before the GREAT MASS MARKETING EVENT to purchase food stuffs-you know the thing you usually get at the market. As the automatic doors slid open, I was assaulted by an enormous Valentine Day display that I was forced to walk through to enter the store! Really? The suffocating exhibition was filled with balloons, flowers, stuffed animals, roses and chocolates. There was absolutely no way to avoid it, but to go through it-as they say.
It was in our face wasn’t it, SELF? The take home message? “YOU ARE ALONE! “ The consequence of picking the wrong day to pick up tomatoes, was feeling awful about mySELF, and being inadvertently reminded-as if the millions of commercials hadn’t already done their work-that the next day, there would be
No flowers
No roses
No card
No chocolate
I left the store heartsick and posted about it on FB.
So this Valentines Day, I am taking a stand for mySELF and all of us flying solo by choice, by loss or by decree. I am sending YOU and mySELF a love letter.
This is a reminder that you are LOVED.
This is a reminder that you are perfect just as you are…however you ARE.
This is a reminder that flying solo can actually be a conscious choice.
This is a reminder that love has a lot of faces, races and very often it’s not the commercialized drill.
This is a reminder that you are not alone, no matter how alone you might feel today.
This is a reminder that despite what you may have been told, you are WHOLE, PERFECT and GOREGOUS…just as you ARE.
This is a reminder to look in the mirror today and wed yourSELF…from this day forward, with all your HEART and SOUL.
This is a reminder to BE YOUR OWN BELOVED.
May a million mirrors shatter the illusion that we are not LOVED and that we are not LOVE.
Photo Credit: Creative Commons
by Heart Light Digital