Tis the season for flowers, chocolates, and public displays of affection. It's that time of year when the stores will crowd with young couples who are eager to purchase something sentimental for their own valentine.
Restaurants will fill with lovers celebrating their love, and every corner will have some couple snuggling up in the cold. However, for many who find themselves single this February, Valentines brings a sense of dread and hopelessness in a heart shaped box.
Couples are more likely to break up around St. Valentines, and suicide rates have been known to go up pretty significantly around this time. With the constant bombardment of how beautiful romantic love is, and how incredible it is to be showered with love and affection, many people can feel isolated and hopeless about their current situation.
There seems to always be this omnipresent dark cloud over the holiday. In the words of The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, "Valentine's Day is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap".
While it's understandable to feel this way, I believe that having a holiday that celebrates love is a pretty incredible thing. Obviously romantic love is not something that everyone is currently experiencing, but we all experience some form of love every day.
Whether it's a parent, a friend, a pet, or even a friendly mailman, we all have some kind of love that is worth celebrating.
We love well written books, an intricate song, a worn out blanket that still smells earthy like home, or maybe just a beautiful sky. There is love to be found in every crevice of this Earth that has nothing to do with romantic love.
The love we have for those who make up our individual worlds are not loves of grandeur, we typically don't even think of them as love. However, they do make life a whole lot more bearable. We become so caught up in the idea of romance and infatuation that we miss the pretty incredible people and things that we surround ourselves with.
Once we stop thinking about Valentine's Day in the terms of committed relationships, we realize just how much love we have in our lives to celebrate.
If you do find yourself single this February, make even more of an effort to treasure all of the wonderful things in your life. Send flowers to an aunt, because you two haven't talked in a while. Go out to dinner with a friend, catch up on their life. Have a chat with a neighbor, learn a bit more about who you live around.
Go for a run and feel the blood pump through your veins, know you're alive. Paint something abstract that makes you smile. Maybe just lay in a field and gaze at the stars for a while, and think about how much beauty there is in this universe.
Whatever you do this Valentines Day, make sure to celebrate the love that you have in your life. And more than anything, make sure you love yourself in the way that you deserve to be loved.
