Valentine's Day

I read an article yesterday about pets being your valentine.  How yes, there are crazy people who shell out money for their pets on Valentine’s Day. It is the old fashioned kind of love that you can’t text or send an e-mail to.  You can’t call them up (though many of us do) and leave messages of love on your phone.  It’s the kind of love that you actually have to give to them in person.  Kneeling on the floor, rubbing behind their ears, scratching the top of their head.  NayNay will actually let me hug her.  Zeke won’t sit still enough.

I declared to my best friend of 22 years--Kelli—“I am beginning to believe Valentine’s Day is for dating couples and newlyweds.”  

Valentine’s Day was only important to me in the absence of a boyfriend or when love was new. When you are single, somehow Valentine’s Day seems even more important than it really is.  When you are just dating—it’s just exciting to finally have someone to celebrate love with.  Now that I have been married nine-and-a-half years, when I think Valentine’s Day I think over-crowded restaurants and over-priced flowers.   I ask my friends and co-workers what they are doing and the ones that have been married for years often begin the conversation with some word that is more like a noise.."Hmm..nah...".  They may say they went to dinner a couple nights ago or will over the weekend, but to all you starry-eyed single people out there-- us married people were probably already going to go out anyways, we are just calling it Valentine's dinner and to celebrate may even allow ourselves an appetizer. 

So Kelli tells me that Valentine’s Day isn’t important either but she wants to get something for the kids.  Later she texts me and tells me of the flowers and chocolate-dipped strawberries her husband of almost 20 years surprised her with.  She’s weepy and Kelli’s never weepy.   She even takes pictures of it and sends them to me, minus one chocolate covered strawberry she has already eaten.

I have decided to bake Steve a cake and I know he has plans to go out and buy me something small....other than a spice rack ;).  We don't normally celebrate Valentine's Day and truthfully neither I nor Kelli would be disappointed with nothing.  The truth is, we agree that it isn't Valentine's Day that is so special, it's when someone just takes the time to think of us and to do something special.

So for either of us—Valentine’s Day isn’t about the chocolate-dipped strawberries or the chocolate cake (though of course you could never have too much chocolate- strawberries, cakes or labs)!   It’s about the thought, and truth be told it’s really just a day that reminds us to stop and love the one we are with.  So for this Valentine's Day post-- I wish my husband, partner and  valentine...Steve..Happy Valentine's Day.   You and I both know that love isn't about a day but about what we have that gets us through every day, every joy, every trial, and every path in life.

Supplements

NayNay has always been grey around the muzzle.  Since the day we picked her up from the shelter.   We were told she was two that fall day in 2004.  We seriously doubted it with all that grey but the way she acts at "maybe eleven" makes us believe she would've very well been two.  She still bounces off the walls when she gets to playing.

Now she's grey around the eyes....the grey on her muzzle has grown out a bit.  The grey doesn't bother me since she's pretty much always been grey-- it's the stiffness that bothers me.  How she gets up and stretches after a long lay-- and yet she walks with stiff hind legs across the room. She doesn't seem bothered by it but I notice.  I think we're blessed.  Usually labs show it earlier in life with all their hips and joint issues.

Nay is so little compared to Zeke.  Almost half his size.  When she lays in the bed she looks like a little bear cuddled up in the blankets.  Sometimes when I walk through the room only her eye balls follow me. 

Sometimes I want to lay in my bed forever.  The other night I came home from work and walked straight upstairs and got in bed.  My mind had been playing tricks on me and it was affecting me mentally and physically.  Like I was going to shut down and not move.  Whether it be called an anxiety attack or just a pity party-- one thing was certain-- getting out of bed, stretching, and moving on was going to take initiative on my part.

And so I did-- get out of bed, stretched and moved on.  Steve was sick and sleeping so it was dinner by myself.  I made myself a healthy meal, a hot cup of tea...and watched two hours of Downton Abbey.  Did it help?  Well how could a cup of tea and Downton Abbey not help? 

I think it was one of those things where I had made it difficult on myself.  Though I am still a "young thirty-seven" year old...it seems as I age the battleground of the mind becomes more frequent.  Not panicky over huge things-- but panicky over little.  Why won't my computer work?  How will I ever retire?  I shouldn't be eating these chocolate chips!!!  (BTW....I grabbed a few chocolate chips as I just typed that)

And so the "day to day grind" is now inflicted with the battlefield of my mind.  What do I need?  I need a supplement!  I pop NayNay a supplement to help her each day....stretch those stiff legs.  But it takes her having it every day to get her through.  I need a supplement.

When I was young I thought a Bible verse would always fix things....a prayer would sway my mind in a new direction.  It isn't always that simple.  It's not like aspirin-- take it when you have a headache only...it's more like a vitamin.  You add it every day.  Taking it once may not help immediately--- but a daily supplement will help.  Sometimes it is just saying "My heart is fixed on Thee..." Psalm 57:7  A daily supplement of meditating on God's promises, God's love...and God ALONE.