Love and Gravity (My Late VDAY Post)

*(PHOTO FROM INTERNET)*

It was killing me all week – not being able to write a Valentine’s Day post! And it isn’t because I didn’t try. Somehow, I’ve been all out of words lately. I think it’s because my left brain has taken over the right –  don’t know where it’s run to, but I need to find it. Stat.

Walking through downtown Chicago on Valentine’s Day was heartwarming. Men clutching flower bouquets on the way to the train; one guy had a card in his hand that blew away with the wind. He ran across the street to retrieve it, people stopped what they were doing to help him catch the card as it teetered and tottered and bounced on the sidewalk.

Valentine’s Day is alive and well. You could feel it in the vibrancy of that day. Everyone was flying, coasting, high on the meaning of that day. I think this day is meant for that. It’s meant to remind us of first loves, first dates, magic, lust, attraction and all the emotions and events that get us through the days when gravity takes over and we are grounded. Because love doesn’t happen overnight. And it doesn’t last when it’s based on anything else but selfless giving. People are people – and that just means we’re all weird in our own way. Someone needs to love us enough to take the good with the bad.

Many young people today (I have three of my own) have a romanticized version of togetherness. Because all we see on social media is perfection. You want to be one of those beautiful people who dress in awesome outfits, whose offspring look just as gorgeous, who vacation and sit in coffee shops all day long, who work out and drink $12 shakes six times a day. What a blow to them, when they find out that hard work and dedication is the only direct route to that life. That most of us aren’t born into luxury – and even if we were, it can never buy love.

When gravity sets in, when you’re back in the daily grind for the 360 something more days this year, when the ground meets your feet and you’re walking through life – live in the love that’s real and true.

The love that’s rooted in friendship and stupid jokes.

The one that affords you some bickering as well – just because you’re you and you can’t agree with one person all the time.

The love that you go home to when you leave a job where everyone thinks you’ve got it together. Or a job where everyone tells you that you don’t know shit.

The love that’s there when you fall apart.

And stop trying to figure me out. Just listen to my words because I’ve been there. Unless you live on the moon, you can’t float through the universe forever.

Well, maybe in the year 3000.

For now, this will have to do.

Hope your Valentine’s Day was real.