Today is Valentine’s day…I hope you are showered with real love and care today.

As I was coming in today, I was listening to a podcast “On Being” with Krista Tippett. She had previously interviewed Omid Safi who talks and writes about marriage and love. Omid talked so realistically about love and how we are all tremendously broken people trying to be relationship with other broken people. And we are trying to build relationships amidst all the fluffy “falling-in-love” fantasies of TV and movies. I so appreciated Omid’s take on love and the fact that primary relationships ARE HARD and messy and often misses the mark of the fantasy.  

They also talked about how many dimensions of love there are and that we can practice a service kind of love or a friendship kind of love or a familial kind of love that is probably more important than romantic love. I so appreciated the breaking open of the myth that couplehood is heaven or even the ideal. No. For those of us who live in a couple… we know that it is hard hard work to come to terms with our own brokenness and that of the one we love. Just trying to bring up kids with another person is incredibly challenging and probably the hardest thing in the world!

Anyway, I work hard at it, (love) at home and I could do better at leaning on alternative love relationships like in service, friendship or family.  How about for this valentine’s day we celebrate all kinds of love… like the service love we have for our residents? How about we bring a bit of humility and non-judgment to our beloved even if there are no flowers or chocolates waiting for us?

We are all hard at work at love in all our brokenness. Spread some kindness and appreciation today.

Be the love you hope for the world.

Warmly,

Michelle