Valentine’s Day! Did your friends and family remember you? Cards? Handmade valentines? A box of chocolates? Perfume? A book by your favorite author? Or… nothing.
Can you recover from a national day of LOVE if there was no gift for you?
One year my neighbor called me out of a conference session at my workplace to tell me that my husband was very ill. I dashed home to find my 6 year-old standing in the driveway fretfully waiting for me. “Daddy’s dying!” she blurted out. My friend came over to watch the children while I bundled my husband into the car and drove hastily to the ER.
He was in hospital for over a week before they finally had a definitive diagnosis. Before that though, I went every morning and every evening after dinner to see him. One day, I came home particularly weary – the tentative diagnosis was intestinal cancer. Our children were 2 and 6, how would I be able to manage alone?
Pulling into the driveway that evening, I noticed a bunch of flowers at the front door. My heart leapt. Who could have sent me flowers? As I parked in the garage and walked back to the front door, I thought of all the people who might have sent this pick-me up. I could think of so many and was cheered up before I opened the door.
Inside, I unwrapped the flowers and read the tag attached. They were not from friends or family. They were an advertisement for a new business hoping I would to subscribe to their weekly flower delivery service?
Okay, this could have been a real downer! Doesn’t anyone care?
Instead, I had a good laugh. Ahh, the mysterious ways of the universe. My thoughts had gathered around me all of the people who cared enough to be candidates for senders-of-flowers. I was not alone – just overwhelmed.
My husband remained three more weeks in hospital for the operation he needed to treat his newly diagnosed Crohn’s disease. My friends and family came through with meals, and childcare, and phone calls, and invitations for lunch and a good cry.
However, my healing had begun with flowers that were an invitation to purchase a service! They came at the right time and enabled me to climb out of my pit of despair.
I am always alert to the small ways that life supports me: found money, parking spots when I need them, phone calls at just the right time, an item of clothing I love on sale and still in the shop, an invitation to go for a walk.
Most days I can find ways to feel that I am being watched over. I am not alone.
May you be aware of the ways the universe is caring for you.
