What’s Really Important on Valentine’s Day

On the way home from class tonight, I passed a flower shop that still had quite a few nice bouquets of roses and other flowers set out.  Instead of making me smile, I frowned and kept on walking by.  It’s not that I have a problem with Valentine’s Day, since I love having an excuse to get my wife a gift, but this is another holiday I’m spending apart from her.  It’s not that I want to focus on the negative, but it’s hard to see these opportunities go by, knowing that it’s a holiday lost, that I didn’t get to spend with her.  There’ll be another Valentine’s Day next year; we’re both still young, but this one is passing us by without us being able to share it, together.

It’s strange how we become accustomed to certain things.  We get comfortable and assume that someone will always be there.  We begin to take things for granted.  It’s only when that person is absent that we realize just how big a part of our life they really are.  I love my wife, I always have, but now that we’re separated, especially today of all days, I realize just how much I rely on her and enjoy her company.  My wife is my inspiration, my motivation, and my joy in life.  Everything loses its luster when she’s not with me to share the experience.

Next year, we’ll be together for Valentine’s Day, and I’m looking forward to doing something extra cheesy, a walk through Central Park perhaps, or maybe we’ll do the touristy thing and ride in a horse drawn carriage.  Or maybe we’ll go exploring in the main New York Public Library.  Whatever it is we do, we’ll do it together, and being together will be the best gift of all.  That and a nice dinner.