Heart to Heart

“To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer; not to love is to suffer; to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be happy one must love or love to suffer or suffer from too much happiness.”― Woody Allen

Valentines’ isn’t just a day, it’s an attitude.

Whether you’re blissfully over the moon or steaming about love gone way (way) wrong, own your Valentine’s Day!

I know. Valentine’s Day isn’t all about long stems and glittering bits in little boxes for everyone. Weighing in on both sides of the love divide, the sappy and the cynical—and all the gray area in-between—and in honor of that, I pulled together this something-for-everyone (non)amour post.

Today is a day for being.  Be with those you love and be kind to yourself.

Do something out of the ordinary that you normally wouldn’t do that will lift your spirits.

Buy a beautiful flower for your desk.  Just a single pink flower in a quiet interior can have the impact of a sudden kiss.

Indulge in a strawberry macaroon.

Spend an hour or two browsing in an interesting bookstore  – a bookstore for avid readers, for the unusually bookish, for browsers, for meanderers, for independent minds, and for romantic spirits.

Without reds and pinks, life somehow would be sad.

Red is the colour of passion and romance: Red hearts for Valentines, The Queen of Hearts, red checked gingham, a pricked finger in the snow.

If a kiss is just a kiss, then…there’s nothing more romantic than Love Letters….cause if you ever leave me, I’m going with you.

It’s all about the little things. Romance is about making the most of every moment and surrounding yourself with your version of beauty.

You don’t have to be with another person to be romantic.

Choose this day to get up and fix yourself breakfast, then take it back to bed on a beautiful tray laid with a white napkin.

Light a candle, fix yourself a pot of tea, read a really good book, buy yourself the best chocolates or a bunch of flowers, write a love letter, take a bubble bath…dance.  Dance.  Turn the music up loud.  Don’t die with the music in you.

Valentine’s Day is about love — and loving yourself.
The happier you are, the happier the world is going to be.