valentine

One of those things about love is that it pops up in places where it is not expected. Like in my 5th year of college while I was focused on grad school applications and fellowship essays, safe in the knowledge that I didn’t have to worry about dating that year since I’d be graduating in the spring. But somehow I met Steve at a party, and six years ago yesterday we went on our first date. And somehow through the casual college-style courting process, and then the stress of post-graduate decision making and long distance relationship, we ended up together. So here we are in our 3rd married Valentine’s Day, when I can’t help but think back to that beginning stage and how love snuck up on us, and notice how even now despite being in a comfortable, worn-in relationship, it can still be surprising.

Valentine’s Day tends to be pretty low key for us at this point. We like it that way. So it may be a fairly mundane weekend for us, but, I guess that’s one of those surprising things about love – discovering just how well it flourishes through the routines of our entwined lives. So we can get up on a lazy morning, pull out a cookbook and look through the cupboards, and then together engineer a healthy recipe for oatmeal banana pecan pancakes. And then cook them up in a heart shape, and take their picture, just for fun. And go off on an adventure to Ikea with some friends, and wander through the giant floors, and pick out some new wall lamps for the bedroom, and share a $1 frozen yogurt ice cream afterwards. And each do our own thing on a Sunday afternoon; book club for me, finishing up some work for Steve, and then come home to a quiet condo content that we will spend a nice Valentine’s evening together hanging the lamps and making a pizza and enjoying it with some wine and maybe even some chocolate fondu afterwards. And after all that, knowing that we can look back over our weekend and see love throughout all those activities, despite the lack of flashy romance pushed by the commercials this time of year. It seems to me that those flashy things might serve to hide the actual emotions, instead of highlighting them. In any case, I like our little Valentine’s Day together. It’s about celebrating love, and it’s hard not to celebrate when we find it so enmeshed in our ordinary lives.

Wishing you a Valentine’s day where the love shines through the ordinary, making it all the more special.