For those of you who, when you think of Valentines Day, you groan and actually think, 'Single's Awareness Day'....well, don't stop reading just yet. Because as adoring and enthusiastic as I am over romantic love, it will not be taking center stage in this article. Valentines Day is the day of love, but what does that mean, really? Honestly, it's been commercialized as the day when you can buy someone a bunch of chocolate, or bemoan having to buy yourself chocolate, and those in relationships can be excessively relationship-y, you know? And it's entirely about romance. But in my opinion, there are many loves of your life, and I don't really mean that in the conventional way. Popular culture tends to uphol romantic love as the most important and most valid love, but I wouldn't say that that is entirely the case. There's the love of friendship, and then the love of best friendship, the love of your family, the love of God, goodness - the love for your pets. I, for one, even feel a sort of love for strangers and people I've only just met, a loose sort of love that is supportive and makes it so that I wish them no harm and a lot of happiness, if that makes sense. These various loves can be deep, and exciting, and fulfilling, and sometimes even heartbreaking. And because of that, I think they deserve a lot more recognition than they get, and perhaps a little love on Valentines day. So whether you have a significant other or not this February 14th, maybe pay mind to those in your life that love you the deepest, and thank them for it, tell them you love them, show them a small act of kindness! I promise it's not weird - people that love you are the ones who know you the best and will always stick by you, so your random expression of kindness really can't do anything but good here. After all, the Beatles wrote that all you need is love, and I feel like that's been pretty universally accepted as sound advice, so I'm going to roll with it. Spread love, show love, celebrate love. Let's broaden what Valentine's is about!
Keep it kind, guys.
Alli
