My First Encounter with St. Valentine

Love is like playing the piano
First you have to play by the rules
Then you have to forget the rules
And play from your heart…

What a description of this word, phenomenon, mystery!!! I do not know why we crave Love if not for the fact that it is an intricate thread that God wove into us (our fabric of life), when He made us…that links us back to Him.

As February 14 approaches (not sure it is not already February 14 in Australia as I write), oh whatever…these time zones are another thing we need to eradicate…we all need to have our mornings and afternoons together…any one has any idea how we can do away with time zones? Plus it will also help with jet lags….yours truly, I am always deviating from what I am writing about. Ever imagine how people write novels? They start with a story and stick to it and I am dreaming of writing not just one but several such books …not professional books…I can stick to the main gist but I mean…fiction...romance…stuff like that and yet I cannot even finish a blog post without meandering like the river.

Anyway, I was writing about love and February 14 when my thoughts and my fingers went to a different direction…there has been some frenzy in the air about February 14…some adverts even claim they can send flowers and gift to anywhere in the world…these people have no clue that there are villages in some parts of this same world that there are no routes into…they will have to fly, travel by car then change to canoe (not ferries) and it will take like 4 days to reach there…I think I should take them up on it. I just think that before they even get there if at all…it will be another year…maybe Christmas.

I can never forget the first time I heard of Valentines Day, it was in my year one in secondary school (high school for those of us from NA)…yes you can laugh...secondary school. Before this time, I had no clue…have never heard of it as something people in this part of the world celebrate and we celebrate quite a number of things…new baby, weddings, deaths, funerals, new car, new wife, new everything, new yam you just name it but never love as in setting out a day to celebrate love.

It was second term as a year one student and there was so much buzz, gifts were being bought and wrapped and I went to an all girls missionary school …now this are called faith-based schools….even in this school, there was so much going on but for now I will stick with my first encounter with St. Valentine. I called my friend then also a fellow year one to ask what valentine was and I was told it is Lovers day…that even confused me the more. I asked what lovers day meant and that confused my friend the more. Anyway, I bought no gift for anyone, I received no gift from anyone but the gifts and single roses were flying all above my head…it was purely meaningless.

The world has come a long way since then. My son is six and he will be exchanging valentine present in school this year for the second year running. Over the weekend we stopped by a grocery store and he wanted to buy a single plastic rose for his cousin…thank God! not for one strange girl…although I did not buy it, I told him that he should first give his mother before he thinks of any other girl…can you imagine that? Six years and his first thought is not his mother …what is this world turning into?

As you all prepare to celebrate Valentines day, think about it, what are you prepared to give in your relationships...that is more honorable than what you expect to receive. Also, do not let the celebration die after February 14…let the love candles burn all the year round with everyone you love.