Hi Friends and Faithful Readers,
I walked into CVS today and was completely overcome by the red Valentine's Day balloons, teddy bears sitting atop the shelves, the Russell Stover's candy heart boxes and the scent of the many (many!) flowers waiting patiently to be purchased at the front counter. (This whole experience has been quite overwhelming for your single, gluten-free gal!) Not to mention, the candy (with the exception of the sweet tarts and the cherry hearts - not cinnamon!), which is not gluten and dairy free. Thank goodness for establishments like Wildflour. They are truly a life saver! No pun intended.
Anyway, after being completely overcome by my singleness as a young, twenty-something woman, I realized, yet again, that Valentine's Day is highly over commercialized. My grandfather used to say that your love for a person should be celebrated/acknowledged throughout the year and not just on one day. Sure, it's a great day for a "culmination" of appreciation that you have for one person, your significant other, or, for a group of people like your family, but, perhaps it's the material things that overwhelm me, rather than the holiday itself.
In recent years, Valentine's Day seems to be highly focused on the "money" aspect of supporting companies and manufacturers with the typical cost and demand of selling pink and red and white fluffy and sweet things :) Greeting cards are a whole other subject that deserves a separate post altogether. At times, Valentine's Day seems like a "money making holiday" and I wish that it could return to the simplicity of a single rose instead of a dozen, from homemade chocolates instead of store bought, to thoughtful and intelligent conversations that talk about the world and life and the future instead of circling around the "material" things.
Just because I am single as this Valentine's Day is approaching, doesn't mean that I should be feeling like I am "missing" something. Honestly, I take joy and happiness in listening to my friends and co-workers. I take joy in lighting up their day, in seeing their the corners of their mouths turn up into a smile and in their caring thoughts and words. To me, making a family member happy and seeing a neighbor have food on their table when they've been at the hospital all day, is a symbol and a selfless sign of love itself.
Someday, I hope to experience that "romantic" kind of love, but until then - I'm pleasantly enjoying this teacher life as your single, gluten-free gal.
-cheers!
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