Gratitude on Valentine's Day

I know the typical thing to do is to honor couples and romantic love on Valentine's Day. I prefer to take a broader perspective. Yes, I am grateful for the love connection and the almost 17 years that Russ and I have had so far. My heart still skips a happy beat every time he walks in the door (the advantages of a long-time, long-distance relationship!). He is a smart, generous, and handsome (!) man who makes me laugh and I so look forward to our time together. But the other loves in my life -- children, three great sisters and three great brothers, my GRANDsons (!), sisters- and brothers-in law, nieces, nephews, cousins, life-long and more recent friends, and yes, even great family dogs, fill me with so much appreciation for their place in my life. The emotions intertwined in all these relationships are not always joy, not always peace and happiness, but LIFE happens to and around us, and we appreciate the good with a greater perspective because of the bumps in the road. That's when the true beauty of the connection is evident.

Russ and me, um, a few years back… photo by Emma Dodge  Hansen

The past few weeks have proven the strength of such connections, considerably. My youngest sister (we are seven siblings) underwent a very serious brain surgery with a difficult and continuing recovery. It's when you know there's nothing you can do that you want to to anything at all to make it better, to make it easier, to let her know how much she means to you, that there's no one else like her in the world. It's lovely to see how the rest of our family and her friends feel the same way and continue to come together in hopes that our meals, cards, flowers, calls, messages, when delivered, provide the healing energy that will ease her pain and get her back to a place of wellness, the sooner the better. And it's good to realize that any one of us would do the same for our siblings, or in-laws, or best friends, because nothing is more important.

My sister Anne, as Mother-of-the-Groom, with her oldest son, Jack
So beautiful!
July, 2012 - Boca Raton, Florida

So, on this Valentine's Day, I cherish all the loves in my life, with complete and sincere gratitude for every moment, knowing that we are lucky to have every joyful, challenging, happy, sad, proud, embarrassing, spontaneous, planned, long-overdue, imposing, welcome, annoying, and REAL second of that time together.

Happy Valentine's Day my friends, and especially to you, my sister Anne. xoxox