It's About the LOVE

It's beginning to look a lot like LOVE around here!

I have always loved Valentine's Day.

I know there are skeptics who resist being told they need to show love to someone on a certain day of the year. They scoff the commercialism and the expectations.

They are missing the point.

It's about the love.

I suppose I learned from the best.

My sweet Mama used to hand-embroider tiny hearts on my t-shirts as a child. 

Just above the heart.

She would stitch the tiny words, "I AM LOVED" in the hearts.

Such a simple, yet loving gesture from a young mom with little financial means.

My brother had a beloved stuffed blue teddy bear pillow that was his constant companion. 

Each time the well-loved bear became threadbare, my mom would gently remove the stuffing, and use the soft outer pillow covering as stuffing to create a new Blue Bear.

She kept all the love inside the new bear that way.

Day in and day out, love was shown to our family.

Most were simple gestures and quiet words. 

I remember purchasing the newly-released GoGo's album as a teenager.

My sweet mother sat beside me on my bed as I excitedly played every single song for her and talked about the meaning of the lyrics and how Belinda sounded better in one song than the next...

I was aware at the time that she didn't love the music as much as I did, 

but she showed up.

She listened.

She gave of herself.

And I remembered.

Tiny gestures of love is all it takes, Friends!

My youngest daughter Lily is very much her Grandma's girl.

She doesn't just love... she LOVES!!!

Big love. 

Huge.

She spent the entire weekend choosing the theme for the valentines she will be giving to classmates.

She scoured Pinterest with me until she found just the right Olaf valentines 

(from the movie, Frozen).

We bought the jpeg image and emailed them to Office Max for printing.

She painstakingly made her collection box entirely by herself, and scrawled the names of each classmate after she attached small bags of Hershey's Hugs and Kisses. 

I found her in her room yesterday, feverishly working away on her Rainbow Loom.

She insisted that she wanted to make a friendship bracelet for every classmate, as well. 

She wanted them to have a reminder that they had a friend.

My heart melted a bit at this gesture.

It reminded me more than just a little of my mother's embroidered hearts.

Tiny tokens of love.

It's all about the love!

May Valentine's Day serve as a gentle reminder to shower the people you love with love.

It doesn't have to be about romance and gifts and obligation.

It's all about the love!

Love, Live and Create with intention,

Kristi