Valentines Day.
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day. Do you love it, hate it, or feel indifferent? Do you even know why you feel those emotions and recognise that they're a choice?
More and more people every year choose to opt out of February 14th.
Is it that Valentine's Day over the years has become more diluted and devoid of meaning? or is it that people are starting to value coming from a place of authenticity and therefore waking up to the fact that we are continuously encouraged to feed commercial profit merely for profits sake? Breaking away from what seems expected of us and moving into an age where we act in accordance with our authenticity and drop the superficial?
Is it romantic to give gifts, chocolates, flowers and cards on Valentine's Day, or does it devalue any true meaning of love or sentiment when, on the same day, everyone else is doing it too?
I'm all for showing the people around me how much I value them, especially a partner, but do I need to buy or receive an overpriced bunch of red roses on a particular day of the year to do this? Wouldn't it nourish my partner more to express my love and gratitude every day as apposed to once a year?
We choose to kill our trees which would have continuously provided oxygen for maybe hundreds of years, to give a message about how we feel, in a card, that will not only be thrown away within 7 days, but a message that you could express more authentically and lovingly in person.
We choose to give flowers that will die in 7 days, which if left in the ground would have bloomed every year for many years!
We choose to support consumerism at the expense of our planet as well as human, animal and plant life!!
You can blame the commercial marketing peddled to us by florists, greeting card companies, jewellery stores and makers of stuffed animals, but you only need concern yourself with that which you can change, and what you can change is EVERYTHING!
They can't sell what you won't buy.
We want to tell the person that we love, that we love them. So tell them, just consider doing it without the stuffed teddy middle man that will end up in landfill.
If you like Valentines day, then maybe this year it can stand for something greater and deeper!
If you don't particularly like Valentine's Day, then perhaps this year it's a chance to do something other than ignore it or moan about the fact that you don't like it.
Make it a day that you can get on board with!
It could stand as a healthy reminder to value and show your loved ones how much you care. A chance to check in and ask ourselves if you are giving the people around you the appreciation they deserve.
Not through purchasing more unimportant material things, but through deeply connecting, caring, supporting, listening, understanding, loving and most importantly APPRECIATING!
When you give love, you give who you are not what you have. What you have can be taken away, but who you are never can.
If after appreciating everything that you already have, you still feel like splashing your cash, then maybe you could consider giving the money you might have spent on a meal out to people whose life depends on their next meal.
Happy Valentine's Day when it comes fellow humans xxx
Laura
www.worldvision.org.uk
Valentine's Day. Do you love it, hate it, or feel indifferent? Do you even know why you feel those emotions and recognise that they're a choice?
More and more people every year choose to opt out of February 14th.
Is it that Valentine's Day over the years has become more diluted and devoid of meaning? or is it that people are starting to value coming from a place of authenticity and therefore waking up to the fact that we are continuously encouraged to feed commercial profit merely for profits sake? Breaking away from what seems expected of us and moving into an age where we act in accordance with our authenticity and drop the superficial?
Is it romantic to give gifts, chocolates, flowers and cards on Valentine's Day, or does it devalue any true meaning of love or sentiment when, on the same day, everyone else is doing it too?
I'm all for showing the people around me how much I value them, especially a partner, but do I need to buy or receive an overpriced bunch of red roses on a particular day of the year to do this? Wouldn't it nourish my partner more to express my love and gratitude every day as apposed to once a year?
We choose to kill our trees which would have continuously provided oxygen for maybe hundreds of years, to give a message about how we feel, in a card, that will not only be thrown away within 7 days, but a message that you could express more authentically and lovingly in person.
We choose to give flowers that will die in 7 days, which if left in the ground would have bloomed every year for many years!
We choose to support consumerism at the expense of our planet as well as human, animal and plant life!!
You can blame the commercial marketing peddled to us by florists, greeting card companies, jewellery stores and makers of stuffed animals, but you only need concern yourself with that which you can change, and what you can change is EVERYTHING!
They can't sell what you won't buy.
We want to tell the person that we love, that we love them. So tell them, just consider doing it without the stuffed teddy middle man that will end up in landfill.
If you like Valentines day, then maybe this year it can stand for something greater and deeper!
If you don't particularly like Valentine's Day, then perhaps this year it's a chance to do something other than ignore it or moan about the fact that you don't like it.
Make it a day that you can get on board with!
It could stand as a healthy reminder to value and show your loved ones how much you care. A chance to check in and ask ourselves if you are giving the people around you the appreciation they deserve.
Not through purchasing more unimportant material things, but through deeply connecting, caring, supporting, listening, understanding, loving and most importantly APPRECIATING!
When you give love, you give who you are not what you have. What you have can be taken away, but who you are never can.
If after appreciating everything that you already have, you still feel like splashing your cash, then maybe you could consider giving the money you might have spent on a meal out to people whose life depends on their next meal.
Happy Valentine's Day when it comes fellow humans xxx
Laura
www.worldvision.org.uk