Valentine’s Day is definitely all about love, however, have you ever paused to wonder what love is really all about and what our greatest love is? Very few of us dares to dwell deep into the horizons of those thoughts as the revelations can be quite painful and disturbing.
If you are brave enough to face your demons you shall realise that a man’s greatest love is always his own self. Everything else that he claims to be in love with is just an extension of that self.
Like everyone else this realization did not dawn on me one fine evening under a cherry tree. I had my share of downfalls, share of heartbreaks and painful realizations which made me understand that you can never love anyone else unless you respect yourself enough. Once you manage to do that love becomes a way of life, you no longer need to pine for it or wait for it.
For the last couple of years I have been treating myself to everything that I wanted to have all throughout the year. I no longer wait for someone or spend my month’s salary in sending Teddy day gifts or Valentine gifts to India.
You might as well think that I am a heartbroken individual, who is embittered towards the concept of love because of a heartbreak. If you are thinking on those lines then it is not much of your fault. Any normal person would be tempted to think so, including me.
Truth, however is quite different. I still have a number of male friends with whom I enjoy a good time on alternate weekends. Since I have a soft corner for soft fluffy teddy bears, on the morning of 10thFebruary every year, I find a couple of these small cuddly creatures in my mailbox. Most of the times the sender of these teddy day gifts are anonymous, however I am usually able to make out who had sent me the gifts from their handwriting.
I won’t deny that I enjoy receiving these small mementos of love from people who really care for me. The best part of these teddy day gifts lies in the fact that, there is no reason to return them. It was never an obligation, instead a spontaneous act of love. It creates no expectations, yet leaves you with a sweet feeling.
Every Valentine’s Day I take a day off and spend a great amount of time in re-evaluating what I had done in the past year and how I could improve my performance in the following year. On February 14th every year I go for a date with myself. I still love sending some return Valentine gifts to India, just to tell my friends that no matter how much you try you can never hide your identity from me.
This year I intend to spend Valentine’s Day in Avon, the birthplace of the bard. I always wanted to be there and this year I finally had the time and money to finalise the plans. I would end this post with a line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet which says “This above all: to thine own self be true.”
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