Be Mine!

Happy Valentines Day!! 

      Last night my oldest son was kinda bummed and lamenting the fact that he doesn't have a girlfriend. I remembered the pain of being younger, liking someone and not having those feeling returned.. and winced. I remembered that it hurts.. Like tearing off a toenail. So I tried to be sensitive when I asked him if he still had people in his life that loved him, and he said yes, that he did. So I asked him why it has to be a romantic day? He agreed that it didn't really have to be. I thought a little more about that this morning and decided that if it didn't have to be a day that's only for the people you're intimately, romantically involved with, then I could try to do a few things differently today.
     I went to Home Depot this morning and instead of staying silent in the line at the mill work counter, I struck up a conversation with the guy next to me. He left smiling and so did I. At the check out counter, I told the woman helping me that she had beautiful hair. She had been scowling and looking down, until I complimented her, then we both smiled, but she was beaming. I chatted with the guy selling hot dogs out front ( by the way, as an amateur hot dog connoisseur, I recommend Home Depot dogs over Sam's Club. Twice the price, but they're grilled man. Doesn't get better than that!) When the guy in line behind me joined in,  I found out that his wife is deaf and they have been struggling to find some resources for affordable sign language classes for their family, and a video phone for their home. I was able to help him out, and again, we all left smiling. 

       To be honest, I was a little grumpy when I woke up today and nervous that it was going to be a bad day.  I was thinking this morning how its so much easier to show love when we feel loved to start with. Sometimes though, if we reverse the thinking, more love comes back to us than first anticipated.. It can sometimes take a great amount of effort to love some people, and some simply draw it out of us effortlessly. It took nothing from me at all to give to these people, not even extra time. Sharing a little happiness and affection turned everything around though and made a world of difference; more for me than them. I think that maybe I need to try this a little more often, starting with my own family. I am learning that service is the key with my family. If I want them to be less selfish, more generous, to speak kinder and more freely love each other.. then I must be willing to model that for them. I can't think of a better day to put a little more effort into that than today. 

     On a less soap boxy note... I started this blog with the hopes of being able to educate a little about what I've learned along our journey; so I wanted to share the sweetest video from ASL Nook, just in time for today!!! Here is short video that will help you learn some signs to help you tell your family how much you love them (and some cute crafts too!) 

And of course I can't show this video without showing one of Calvin doing his best Valentines signs too! 

I hope you're all having a lovely day with your friends and family!