Valentine’s Day is next week. What could be more fun than a holiday that exists to celebrate love! And, the celebration often involves presents and flowers and chocolates and Valentine’s and love notes. Woo Hoo…could it get any better?
Honestly, I adore every single thing about this holiday but being a lover of words, I want to receive a love note. I don’t care if it’s written on a Post-it, on the back of an envelope, in the dust on my car, on the bathroom mirror, or inside a flowery and beautiful Valentine card…I want a love note.
I received my very first love note when I was eight years old. It was sent by a boy named Oliver who lived near my grandparent’s farm. He sent it to my grandparent’s house about this time of year, and it was waiting for me on the kitchen table the next time I visited.
Even though he was a year or so older, I was impressed that he had actually mailed it to me. In the letter, Oliver told me that he liked me and hoped that I liked him too. He said he also hoped we could walk down to the creek together in the springtime and look for minnows and cattails.
It was a very sweet and innocent note. We never did take that walk together and I always wondered if Oliver might be a forest ranger somewhere today since he obviously loved the outdoors!
But the thing I remember most, is how special I felt because another person liked me enough to take the time to write and tell me. I wish I had kept that letter from young Oliver so long ago. I’ve received many love notes in my life, but I still remember that first one and how it made me feel.
When my children were small, I used to put little love notes in their lunch boxes for them to find at school. I would also cut their sandwiches in the shape of a heart with a cookie cutter. One day when my oldest son was in the second grade, he came home and said, “Mom, the guys are teasing me. I need you to stop cutting my lunch into heart shapes. I know you love me, but it’s getting embarrassing.”
So, I stopped with the heart shaped sandwiches and love notes but I would still put a couple of Hershey’s kisses in his lunch now and then. That seemed to be okay.
We are all used to getting electronic emails and text messages, but there is still something about getting a handwritten love note that you can hold and keep and cherish…and pull out when you’re having a hard day. In our digital world, love notes speak the loudest.
I hope you will write a love note to someone in your life this Valentine’s Day. It can be long and mushy, it can be short and to the point, or somewhere in between. No one ever gets tired of hearing “I love you”.
Great blog – thank you for all the cards you have written to me!!!!!