What the world needs now

If ever we needed a holiday that celebrates love it’s now.

We don’t need chocolate, flowers, jewelry or cards (though all of those are nice).

This Valentine’s Day, we just need love.

We need the kind of love that inspires a young woman to sit with her elderly neighbor all night because the neighbor lives alone and doesn’t feel well.

The kind you can crochet into a tiny hat for a newborn baby you’ve never met.

Or bake into a warm loaf of lemon blueberry bread dropped off at a grateful door.

Or feel in a big old hug at the end of a long day.

Or see in the stands of a senior’s last basketball game.

Or hear in the long, slow draw of a bow across an old cello’s strings.

Or scrape from a shovel that has just cleared the snow from your sidewalk.

We need the kind of love you can squeeze into a handshake.

Or roll into dough.

Or send in a hand-written note.

Or carry piggy-back.

Or read in a pair of twinkling eyes.

Or convey in a chatty phone call.

What we need now, more than anything, is the kind of love that doesn’t cost anything at all, but changes the world.

I hope you feel and share that kind of love this weekend.

Happy Valentine’s Day weekend!