my favorite Valentine's Day

(VD: not just for all the lovers out there)

i love valentine's day. 

i do! unabashedly, unashamedly, i do! i love it!

i mean, seriously, look at this cake:

how could you NOT love this cake? it's adorably valentine-y.

i will admit that many of the things i love about valentine's day are superficial: cute candies, pink heart shaped everythings, corny little cards full of puns, and chocolate. lots of chocolate. my personal favorite treat still remains to be those traditional candy hearts- i love the white, chalky ones and the green ones the best. and i love that the sayings keep up with the times- one time i got one that said 'fax me'. seriously? i love being faxed.

but the thing i love most about valentine's day is the good, ol' fashioned LOVE in it all. i mean, it's seriously a day created to celebrate nothing more than LOVE. and before you give me the over-used "it's just a commercialized, Hallmark holiday" excuse, hear me out.... yes, I will be the first to admit I love the heart shaped candy and pretty colors and cute little trinkets that have absolutely no use other than to...well, look cute (see above). however, i also love LOVE, and any excuse to celebrate it. 

and the reality is, valentine's day only sucks if you let it. it's only painful if you focus simply on one kind of love- romantic love- and whether you have it or not and whether it's celebrated with expensive gifts or meaningful dinners and desserts. 

but what about all the other kinds of love out there? love for your friends, for your family, even, perhaps, for strangers on the street, for humankind?

let me share my favorite valentine story of all....

i was in 2nd grade, and we had just moved to a new state. my parents were in flux, as was our family dynamic. i didn't really feel like i belonged anywhere- at school, on the softball field, and sometimes even at home. i remember waking up one morning, Valentine's Day. i was excited, because if you remember, as a child, Valentine's Day at school means parties, Valentine exchanges, and candy- lots of candy. i got up and went to the dining room for breakfast, and to my surprise, there were four cards and four gifts, one for each of us girls (mom included), all from my dad. i remember my card was a giant, folding zebra, and my gift was a bottle of Love's Baby Soft perfume. i felt so special, and so loved by my father. i remember this as one of the very first times feeling like my daddy's little girl: i was feminine, i was special, i was celebrated. i have never smelled Love's Baby Soft without reliving that special feeling.

the following few years, he did similar things- i remember a very ornately cut-out, red card in the shape of a dragon, and little gifties and candies on Valentine's morning that allowed me to start the day off feeling loved and special.

now to be honest, my father and i have had a hell of a ride since then- his Valentine gifts did not foreshadow a Hallmark-like relationship between daddy and daughter. but they did help me to understand, at that age, how loved i was. and as an adult, these memories give me solid pieces of evidence that i was (and still very much am), in fact, loved deeply by my father.

so i dare you to hate on valentine's day now. i dare you to see it only through the Hallmark lens... and i also dare you to do something lovely for those around you whom you love. make time to say hi, send them a card, bring them a smile and a hello. it doesn't have to be a gift, or flowers, or chocolate. it can be love, shown simply by the time and energy you put in to remembering those around you. 

and if all that doesn't mean anything to you, just stop hatin' on a holiday that gives you an excuse to eat chocolate all day!