Valentine's day... The aftermath.

So running errands on my lunch yesterday proved maddening. People were out in the masses with roses, balloons, picking out cards and looking for that perfect stuffed animal. Holy heart shaped paper products Batman. Erin and I put together candy bags for our softball team. They enjoyed them. I was informed that the high school girls take this holiday very seriously and get dressed up and all. How cute.

So I watched all these people yesterday and you know the one person that stood out the most? This girl that was walking by my house. She had one of those single roses in a cello paper wrap. She was just staring at it and smelling it. If I didn't know better, I'd say she was floating. She looked so happy walking to where ever she was going. So the high school girl taught me something really valuable: it's about the gesture, not the gift and appreciate that someone took the time to think of you.

As we get older, we think more money spent means a better gift. I guess we all forget what it's like to get that first rose, the first box of chocolates, the first balloon, that first plastic ring when you were 7... and guess what, I bet you remember who gave you that ring, the name of the person, what grade you were in. You wore it all the time, probably till it broke to which you cried for hours.

My mom spent her day, making my dad and I cookies. She made them from scratch, colored all her own frostings, which were also made from scratch. Those were some of her best cookies ever and it's because she made them with the intention of giving us something to enjoy and make us happy. It probably gave her just as good a feeling enjoying us rave about them (over and over) as we felt receiving (inhaling) them.

I also received some other things that showed me a couple of things. The people I care about, care about me too. How? You ask. They listen to me, the things I received, I at some point talked about, didn't necessarily ask for but just because I talked about them, they took enough time to remember and then get them for me. Thank you.

I hope each of you had your own euphoric Valentine's Day...