valentine's day
Happy Valentine’s Day, sweet reader! I know this holiday can bring to surface a myriad of negative emotions (envy, unmet expectations, loneliness, cynicism, etc. etc.) - but I do believe there is a holiness in celebrating love (whether received, shared, given) and something to look forward to in the pit of Montreal winters, with their short days, dark skies and pitiless cold.
While it is all too easy to get distracted by the marketing narrative surrounding this day, I cherish the underlying, vital invitation to acknowledge the love which enriches our lives so forcefully. I remember the sweet days of elementary school, arriving on the morning of the 14th with a pile of valentine’s notes addressed to my classmates and distributing them excitedly to every one of them. Like most people, I have not kept up with this tender tradition over the years- but thought I would pen a couple today, on the blog.
So, without further ado, here are some simple love notes on this day of February the 14th, 2019.
To God:
To the One who first loved me, speaking me into existence and bursting into the human story- thank you for your pure and fierce love for humankind. Thank you for loving me so lavishly in extending eternal life to a broken, undeserving girl like me. Thank you for embodying love and calling us all Your beloved. May loving you always be the foremost pursuit of my life.
To my sweet family:
I love you for accepting me fully for the things I cannot change in myself, for challenging me to work on those things I can. You each mirror God’s love to me in your own way- the way it speaks truth and serves radically (mama), the way it is whole and righteous and new every day (sis), the way it is gentle and tucked in the humble crooks and crannies of life (dad). Together you have created and cultivated the home God saw fit for my becoming.
For that, I will be always be grateful.
To my friends:
Near and far, old and new- I love you for the joy, fun, adventure, understanding and grace you bring to my life. Community is a gift we were made for - and I am thankful you make up mine. My village is so, so good to me.
To Montréal:
Je t’aime- for your amusing quirks and profound complexity, and for the memories you carry at every corner. The thought of parting from you in coming months is a hard one to swallow, but I find comfort at the thought that I will be back (this I know). You will always be my home, and I will always proudly be one of yours.
To my church:
I love you for teaching me to know God, to love those who are different than me, and to serve without thought of myself. You have invited me to walk in abundant grace and receive the forgiveness heaven offers. You can be exhausting and complicated and uncomfortable- but you remind me that even though life is filled with messes, God always (always) provides redemptive paths. Thank you for bringing me to the end of myself and carrying me Home- to the mighty embrace of God.
To this season of life:
I love you for teaching me to love myself, to receive God’s goodness with open hands, to create space in my life for rest and fun, to ask hard questions and take the scenic route. You are overwhelming and confusing and fulfilling all at once- and although I am one to eagerly anticipate the next step, I know I will look back upon you fondly.
To the boy:
For loving me well even when I’m impossible to love, for leading me to the heart of God so sweetly, for doing life with me from thousands of miles away- I love you (and I love falling in love with you). Our love is simple and abounding, pleasant and refining, sweet and tough- ever thine, ever mine, ever ours. Here’s to celebrating our past, relishing in our present, dreaming of our future. I can’t wait to celebrate this day with you in person, one day.
To you, reader:
I love you for taking time out of your life to learn a little bit about mine. Many of you have shared your insights, encouraged me, sought to understand my musings, relentlessly entered this vulnerable space to learn alongside me. I am so, so humbled at the mere thought.
I feel so blessed, so known, so loved.
May this St.Valentine’s Day be a reminder to each and every one of us of our belovedness. May we claim it, embrace it, walk in it.
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