Love is something you can’t describe.                                                                                               Like the Look of a Rose,                                                                                                                     The Smell of the Rain,                                                                                                                       The Feeling of Forever.

Author Unknown

It’s Valentine’s Day or, as my husband calls it,  Amateur Day.

Valentine’s Day is about elegant paper cards that seek to capture the nuances of love. It’s about big bouquets of flowers meant to impress your friends…and melt your heart. Women, including me, love it.

But, as Doug says, “If you wait for February 14th to let the person you love know it, or only try to use someone else’s words to express it, you are an amateur.”

Doug is no amateur, and I have known that since I was 19 years old.

He knew I was the one when we met. He says he decided then and there that he was going to marry me. He told me he could even envision me having his child.

It took me a bit longer since I had just broken up with someone else, also named…Doug. So, he waited a month and then pursued me through a friend.

We went to a bookstore, (how perfect for us), and literally reached for the same book. Then, I did know. His hand touched mine, and it really did send a shock wave through me. It still does.

We have been best friends and an unshakeable team ever since. It is his craziness and his corny jokes that make even the worse events bearable, and the best events joy. It is his happiness that makes my soul rejoice.

At this point in my life, it feels as if there has never been a moment I haven’t loved him, and I know, no matter what, there will never be a moment in the future when that will change.

So, don’t misunderstand, I love Valentine’s Day. Doug’s has cultivated florists and sent me gorgeous flowers for untold years. Of course, he has also accompanied them with things like a poem written on toilet paper!  But what really made me the envy of my friends was that he not only sent flowers all year long, but that he left no doubt for anyone about how much I am loved. So, please, do enjoy this Valentine’s Day. Relish the smell of the roses, the lusciousness of the chocolates. Tear up at the sentiment in the cards. I will. Valentine’s Day is great! It’s fun and it can be very romantic.

But what I wish for all those I love, for all my friends, and for everyone who reads this, is more. I wish that you know real love – love from the depths of a “professional” heart that makes you feel treasured and special and complete.

What I hope you find today is the feeling of… forever.

And Doug, this is for you. I love you more than I can say. I love you…forever. Happy Amateur Day.