Are you a man-made, store-created-holiday hater? Do you despise Valentine's Day and wish you could shoot Cupid in the derriere' with his little bow and "love" arrows? I know many people who really don't care for this holiday. While I wouldn't go so far as to say I hate these holidays, they do get me to thinking..... which is almost always dangerous. The more I have thought about it, the more I think these for-profit store-created holidays could be used to do a lot of good.
What if we turned the tables on this greeting card industry marketing ploy and took this day to not only show some love to our family and friends, but to neighbors and strangers as well? What if we all did one thing out of the ordinary for a stranger on this one day? Would this then still be day to enrich the coffers of industry, or a day to enrich the hearts of people who would cherish and remember that one kind act for a lifetime?
What if we all did something on this day which didn't involve whipping out our credit cards? What if you scraped the ice off of a stranger's (or even a neighbor's) windshield? What if you helped out at your child's school? What if you brought a plate of cookies to share with co-workers or neighbors (FYI: I like peanut-free chocolate chip)? What if you made a bouquet out of holly and other evergreens you clip from your own yard and gave it to a stranger? What if you took some note paper and handed out handcrafted cards to strangers wishing them a happy day?
WHAT IF we all took a moment to do this for someone outside of our inner circle? What if we made Valentine's Day a for-profit venture of the heart and soul? What could you do for someone else? Please share some of your ideas of ways to show others some kindness on Valentine's Day and let's see if we can truly spread some love on this day.
Christie Bielss
I saw this post on Facebook about a month ago and thought it was hysterical:
Tell Your Husband You Love Him
A group of women were at a seminar on “How to live in a loving relationship with your husband.”
The women were asked, "How many of you love your husband?" All the women raised their hands....
The women were then told to take out their cell phones and text their husband: "I love you, sweetheart."...
The women were then told to exchange phones with another person, and to read aloud the text message they received in response.
Here are some of the replies:
1. Who the hell is this?
2. Eh, mother of my children, are you sick or what?
3. Yeah, and I love you too. What's up with you?
4. What now? Did you crash the car again?
5. I don't understand what you mean?
6. What did you do now?
7. ?!?
8. Don't beat about the bush, just tell me how much you need?
9. Am I dreaming?
10. If you don't tell me who this message is actually for, someone will die.
11. I thought we agreed you wouldn't drink during the day.
12. Your mother is coming to stay with us, isn't she??
The replies really made me think. I've been married 24, going on 25 years. While I tell my husband I love him regularly, this experiment made me think about how many times I've said "I love you.......... and I found a new sofa", or "I love you...... but I closed the garage door on the car's liftgate again" vs. just saying those 3 little words with no condition attached.
As a wife, I've always tried to express my feelings regularly (and being a redhead I probably express them TOO regularly), but I felt the need to test this experiment out on my husband to see whether I was a member of the "conditions attached" club. With great confidence that I wasn't, I texted the quote challenge word-for-word to my husband.
Fully expecting to be able to gloat with great pleasure over how his reply would prove how much I have regularly expressed my love with no conditions attached, I eagerly awaited his reply. Within seconds he responded............ "I love you too. What's up?".
Hi. My name is Christie and I am a member of the "I haven't expressed my love for my spouse without some condition attached" club........
