Love and All Its Many Forms...

It's Friday the 14th, February 14th that is, Valentine's Day and I'm actually monitoring a practice test in my reading class right now, but I can't help but reflect on realizations concerning love that are flowing through me at the moment. 

I'm standing and walking around class and I can't help but realize how much love I have and there is in the world. We get stuck and I have especially been stuck on Valentine's Day being a day to honor romantic love, the love between two partners attempting to forge lives together. But as I stand in my classroom surrounded by students, I realize that this only one form of love from one person out of the vast manifestations that love chooses to reveal herself to us. 

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to play down in any way the special unique feelings, experiences and value of being in a genuine, loving romantic relationship with your partner. Rather, I'm offering a different perspective of love that I believe is constantly overlooked and played down, because romantic love is played up as the elusive crown jewel that is rare and the only love to be sought after. 

This morning as I walked into my school building, extremely excited because it's Friday and I was heading "home" this weekend to visit my spiritual family, Love was being thrown at me from all angles. It started with an wonderful phone conversation with my mom filled with laughter and sentiment and a message from my father expressing anguish at my valentine's gift not making it on time and telling me how much he loved me. Each one of my students walked in and wished me a Happy Valentine's Day with the biggest and cheesiest smiles on their faces and with so much energy for the day. 

Then my colleague/soror/friend unexpectedly walked in my classroom with a gray teddy bear for me. As we walked into the hall talking and conversing with each other and our other colleagues, a student from another teacher's homeroom tapped me to give me a valentine's day card and only minutes later, one of the girls on the step team that I co-coach walks in with a valentine's day card and chocolate for me. (Later, I would come home to a beautiful heart shaped gold necklace with a heartfelt engraving on it gifted to me by my father). 

I couldn't help but be overtaken by the unexpected, random and genuine acts of love coming at me. I don't have one special Valentine, but this morning I had 16, each demonstrating in their own special way that I was special to them. Needless to say, I have been cheesing every since....

Love isn't limited to one manifestation, but as many as the drops of water in the ocean. Love is more than just a 4 letter word or a 3 word expression. Love is action. Love is meaningful conversation. Love is quality time. Love is light. Love is you. Love is an unstoppable energy whose flow cannot be hastened. Love is love. And I have it from so many individuals and in so many forms. I am loved and hope to continually show how much I love all those around me with each new day...

Happy Valentine's Day!!!