This month, as we anticipate our kids creating crayon-embellished, construction-paper valentines, we’re turning our attention to love in its amazingly multifaceted forms.
If we’re lucky, we’ll experience a lot of types of love in our lifetime. How amazing that we can feel the difference between the needy, trusting love of our childhoods to all manners of affection, infatuation, friendship, romance, commitment and deep, intimate connection — and definitely not necessarily in that order.
And how incredible to have the privilege of feeling the love we have for our children. It’s indescribable, indestructible and yet so powerful that we’re never the same after experiencing it. Some of us have walked heartbreaking paths on the way to this love, and some have faced wrenching pain after encountering it. Nevertheless, it stays with us, defines us and propels us.
Some people suggest that loving our own kids is easy, selfish even, since they’re an extension of ourselves. We think that kids raised with a foundation of love can go on to change the world. But it’s true that we shouldn’t limit our love, even now as parents, to our children.
So this month, we’re inspired to share the love — with our kids, our partners, our families, our friends, our coworkers, strangers we encounter as we go about our days and, perhaps especially, those who make our days difficult. Why not connect with everyone through some form of love?