ValentinesDay

February is the deepfreeze month stuck between New Year’s and the March of Leprechauns. Although the shortest of months, it has three auspicious days of note.

Groundhog Day leads the way on the 2nd! This is the day big fat rodents determine the length of our suffering in cold and darkness. Not strange at all, right? Apparently, Pennsylvania and Nova Scotia are the main areas where this weather forecasting animal is used, but regardless of its superstitious origin, someone managed to get this bizarre date included on the national calendar. Having their own day must really puff those little diggers up. I bet from their exalted status, they look down upon all the moles, voles, prairie dogs, and gerbils with utter disdain.

On the 14th, February is suddenly all about romance and love, full of chocolate hearts, flowers, and insanely priced cards. Some people claim Valentine’s Day is a made-up holiday, as though a day to celebrate rodents is completely legitimate but a day to celebrate the one you love is a government conspiracy.

And finally on the 21st, we have President’s Day. I’m old enough to remember it being called George Washington’s Birthday, but apparently it became a birthday celebration for George and Lincoln ( who both had February birthdays) and then finally in the 1970s was officially changed to President’s Day. Probably because the other dead presidents felt slighted. Or more likely, the live ones did.

In Minnesota, February is basically the beginning of our second winter. We get about 4 days of above freezing and then we’re back to black-ice, frost-bite, and a drop in crime as all the criminals head south.

With winter feeling extra long this year and February being a tri-celebration month, I am gifting a book for you! From my own experience, cold months are great reading months! So…

February 11th-28th, ENTANGLED (A Fredrickson Winery Novel) will be FREE at all online stores! Pick up a copy if you haven’t read it yet, and tell your book-loving friends and family members to download a copy too!

Get it here> ENTANGLED

Thanks for stopping! Leave a comment and tell us which February holiday you enjoy celebrating the most, or do you have another one I don’t know about??

Barbara

The red heart-shaped holiday has sunk its chocolate-coated fangs into Western society with a merciless bite. Men and women alike feel compelled to purchase expensive cards and gifts for the one they love or the one they hope will love them back.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy receiving gifts and cards and flowers as well as the next woman, but making these things the tipping point of a relationship is just silly. Don’t settle for faux love packaged in a little heart-shaped velvet-lined, rose-scented box of romantic gestures. Real love doesn’t come wrapped in pink paper.

One of the history stories about St. Valentine, was that he was put to death for performing marriage ceremonies for men in the military. The roman ruler had decreed that soldiers should remain single and apparently burning with rage and hormones. There was more than one St. Valentine in history, but this one is my favorite because he was romanticized for doing something that society today often makes fun of. Marriage has taken a beating in the past years.

Movies and television most often depict married men as cow-towed, beaten, overweight losers, or unfaithful middle-aged slime, constantly looking for opportunities to cheat on their wives. That leaves single, unattached, womanizing men to be the heroes of our society. They are considered, fun, cool, sexy, and they all have huge muscles, fancy cars, and never run out of money. These bad boys are what woman are supposed to crave, and never get enough of… guys who refuse to settle down and get married because that would be the end of life as they know it.

But is that romance? What’s the point of Valentine’s Day if there is no true love and the gift giving is just to satisfy a temporary desire? I want more than that… even though I really like chocolate. Thank God, I have more than that. I have a husband who loves me and shows it everyday in dozens of ways. Sometimes by bringing me flowers or presents, but most often by living out I Corinthians 13 to the best of his ability.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

Marriage is meant to last forever. Love is meant to grow and weave it’s way through the hearts and souls of a man and a woman, binding them together through grief and joy, good times and bad, the ups and downs of life, until they are truly one. It’s not always hearts and roses. Some days there are bloody thorns. But when it’s real and the one you love is part of your forever, you don’t need a card company to tell you what to do. You find opportunities all along the way. Valentine’s Day is just one more gesture of love in a long line of gestures. Some as simple as a note left on a pillow or handing the television remote to your spouse for a change, making their favorite meal, or carrying a fresh cup of coffee upstairs to their office where they’re working on their newest book. Throw in a heart-shaped box of chocolates and you’ve got a heady night of sugar-induced hand-holding.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Barbara