My Heart Runneth Over

A LITTLE LOVE IN YOUR HEART

“Rebecca Hartford hated Valentine’s Day.  If it was up to her, it would be outlawed.  Not everyone was lucky enough to have someone special in their life, so it was inhumane to have a holiday that emphasized the fact.”

That is an excerpt from BEAUTY AND HER BEAST, the novella prequel to KNIGHT, book #1 of the SONS OF THE ALPHA series.  I remember writing this line, feeling much the same at the time.

As you might guess, it was written close enough to Valentine’s Day that the sentiment came out of my own lonely heart.  With all the romantic gifts and cards displayed in every store, or the constant flow of flower deliveries at work that were never mine, it was a sore reminder of the love I had lost (my husband had passed some time before this).  So yes, I, like Rebecca Hartford, hated Valentine’s Day.

Something else miraculously happened then that I vividly remember.  I received a card in the mail from my best friend Cathy.  As always, any card we send each other was humorous, and this one was no exception, bringing a smile to my face and laugh to my broken heart.  As usual, I immediately called and talked and laughed with her for over an hour.  It turned that sad, lonely day around for me to be one of the best I had in a long while.

Since then, I’ve made it a policy to give her and many other friends and family members some token or act of love during Valentine’s Day.  Even St. Valentine himself was a single priest.  It was never meant to be just a “romantic” holiday, but one that celebrated the act of human kindness and generosity.

Love, you see, exceeds far beyond just the romantic.  It is bigger and brighter than anything we can imagine, and it never has a ceiling or limit on the amount we give or the people we can give to.

So make sure you celebrate this wonderful holiday not just with that “one special person”, but with spreading the love in your heart to all that you encounter.  I don’t just limit celebrating Valentine’s Day to the single day alone, as well.  I use this entire month of February to remind everyone I know how much I love them and how much they mean to me.  Then my lonely heart is once again filled to the brim and “my cup runneth over”.

I wish the same for you, my lovely friends.

With all my love,

Addison Carmichael