I am so excited about Valentine’s Day. I love any excuse to be romantic, generous and expressive. These days Valentine’s Day is all about my son, my family and my friends. I use it as a formalized reason to express how much I treasure all of them, how much they mean to me and how much gratitude I have for the expansive love in my life.
This year, I got curious, about what being in love means to my son, so I asked him:
“What do you think it means to be in love?”
His response, “Being in love is about generosity, kindness, loyalty and protection.” I was floored by his answer. What a teacher he is, this son of mine.
I opened up the question to a couple of his friends. One friend said that, “Being in love means you have a person that cares about you that you also care about.”
Another friend said “It means finding a person you want to marry.” This was a common theme, another young girl said, “Being in love is when you love someone so much and they love you so much, enough that you want to marry them. And that is being in love." All true.
I find talking to kids about their feelings and the definitions of their feelings so enlightening. Doing so opens the window into what they are thinking and also into new ways of seeing our own emotions.
We are showing our kids how much we love them by listening, hearing them and honoring their ideas. There is nothing more loving than that.
Wishing you all tremendous love on Valentine’s Day. Hope it comes to you in many forms, those expected and those suprising.